Chains of Fate
by SkullFox
Summary: Fox discovers that an evil corporation is planing something insidious, but what he uncovers goes further than even the company planned... Rated T: for partial nudity, death and violence, and severe language.
1. Prolouge

**(Okay as I've said before I tend to write new stuff to cure writer's block...then if my friend likes it when he reads them for me I put them on, well this is the most recent piece that met his particular standards(though he really didn't have my permission to read it) so...Please make sure to give a little feed back on what ya think...)**

**-Intro-**

A frightened gray furred rat stumbled over a half empty trash can falling into a puddle of water the alley had recently collected from the previous night's rainfall as it was Kew's rainy season. Several blaster shots slammed into walls sending chunks of stone into his path. As he ran the rat turned to see if she had caught up with him, Kursed had been chasing him for hours and his legs had long since went numb...the fact that he was still running was miraculous, or maybe it was just the fear the most famous bounty hunter in the galaxy instilled when she was chasing you. Nevertheless he kept running, and praying to whatever gods he could think of to release him from the psychotic vixen that was tailing him..

"YOU'RE A DEAD RAT BASTARD GAREX!!" Kursed's voice echoed through the alley as a shot from a blaster tore into his right shoulder issuing a scream of pain from his lips, "IF YOU THINK THAT HURT JUST YOU WAIT!!"

The fact that he was heavily bleeding now only made Garex run that much faster, not a good idea when your loosing so much blood. He panicked as he noticed that he could see her shadow from around a near corner she was right on his ass...but he turned only to find his neck colliding with what looked like a perfectly proportionate metal arm which quickly pulled the rat into a tight well developed set of abs. Garex could see who it was, but he'd never heard of Kursed working with anyone. Garex struggled to pull his head free but the obviously bionic implant locked around his neck only grew tighter. Finally Kursed could hear him and lurched around the corner ready to fire her blaster but all she could see at the moment was a large fox in a long red coat with a black cross on it's back, she didn't know who this fox was but, Garex was no weakling, she was amazed that he could hold the rat still with a single arm. She smiled a bit when she heard the sound of the crushing bone in Garex's neck before his madly flailing tail fell limply to the ground, her only disappointment was that she hadn't done it herself...

"Creed..." She growled.

At the sound of his name the large bodied fox turned to face the blue vixen; his fiery red fur was only parted by the standard white that started at his muzzle running down past the collar of the dark gray shirt under his red trench, his light blue eyes showed a depth that seemed unfathomable, his darker red hair was a bit longer than shoulder length, his bangs were slightly feathered in front hanging a bit over his eyes as the rest was slicked back into a single ponytail, his black leather pants rattled as he moved as several lengths of chain hung from his belt line, his boots were just as noisy with a heavy kicking plate over the shins...but the main part that stuck out on him were the shining metal bionics that covered his arms, giving him a half machine like rather frightening look...

"So your just going to steal my mark huh!?" Kursed shouted pointing her blaster at his face, "You aren't going a damn place! Cause dead or living that piece of shit is my meal ticket for the next few months!"

A short sided smile spread across both their faces, "I thought you were really going to shoot me that time."

"If you would have left with that rat you're damn right I would have." Kursed laughed putting her blaster away, "What the fuck took you so long anyway? I just chased that son of a bitch all the way across the city..."

Creed laughed out loud as the two began to walk back toward their hanger, located on the other end of the city, "What can I say you looked like you needed the exercise."

"Hey FUCK you!" Kursed shouted punching him in the fleshy part of his shoulder blade.

Creed glanced to his side at the vixen, "Is that an invitation?" He smiled.

"Tch...you wish." Kursed replied, "Only action you're getting around here is from a whore, one of your old cell mates, or one of those." She finished tapping the closest arm to him.

It wasn't too long before they found themselves in a rather small, banged up, old transport ship...honestly it was the sadest thing that either Creed or Kursed had ever seen. She'd owned it ever since she'd left Star Fox. It was nowhere near the massive scale of the Great Fox, it's once pristine paint job was so worn and faded that one could never even tell that it was once a rather pretty shade of blue...It wasn't much but, aside from the constant motel rooms she stayed in, it was home. The two boarded the craft and walked through the short halls that lead to the small bridge where Creed simply tossed his luggage aside...The squared room was rather dimly lit and there were spare parts and other such junk laying about the place, Kursed sighed as she swept a small pile of trash off her captain's seat...

"This place is a fucking sty..."

Creed kicked something across the room, "No shit...I think we can agree to fix this place up with this bounty right?"

"Other than food that's all we really need...I'm a bit sick of that instant Ramen crap, one person can only eat so many noodles. I want steak, sausage, anything made of meat." Kursed's words were beginning to make Creed's mind slip off.

"SHUT UP!" He wined, "You're making me hungry."

Kursed flipped on a small laptop on her seat's arm, "Well giving me your ration of the food was your choice not mine, deal with it."

_'As cold as the day I met you...'_ He thought to himself.

As Kursed sat there typing in something she looked over her shoulder, "I heard that asshole."

"Yeah whatever...you can stuff your telepathy right up your ass. Just get the client on so he can fucking pay us."

After a short time she reached their client who left informed them of where they could meet. The two delivered the body, received their money and were happy to set Kew's third moon well behind them. Kew was the closest planet to them but, there wasn't much for quality there when it came to mechanics or ship parts. They needed the best and that meant Katina. Kursed manually set their course and stood up stretching her back, they picked up a small supply of food on Kew's moon but, only enough for their new trip...they found prices there to be astronomically ridiculous...

"Computer..." Kursed said as she stretched, "...route any calls to the kitchen and my room."

There ship was so out of date that the on board computer didn't eve have a voice, just an annoying confirmation beep to most commands...which she heard now. She spent some time in the kitchen when she heard the computer's attention beep which meant there was an incoming call...

"Uuuhhh..." Kursed groaned as she stood up, "...Creed you deal with that piece of ship com system. I'm takin a shower and going to bed."

When Creed took a seat in the captain's seat he pulled his metallic arms out of his coat allowing it to fall onto the back of the seat. He punched in the codes for the imager buried under the pile of random junk in front of him, an image flickered above the ground for a moment before going out. Creed then kicked the dome shaped object on the floor and the image flickered to life as the floating upper body of a light brown furred fox, he looked like he was blinded by some sort of burn on his face...several arcs of electricity flashed and hissed at him...

"This...cCloud...damage...can't see...qesting...assist..."

After his brief words Creed could see nothing of the image but a label saying "Subspace link lost", though he knew Kursed wouldn't have agreed with what he did, he couldn't help himself as he rushed to his wolfen, and sped out of the docking bay of Kursed's small ship. As he approached the small ship that had appeared on their scanners he found that it was a horribly neglected arwing, that looked like it had been hit by some sort of meteor shower. Without calling to inform the pilot Creed connected to the arwing with his wolfen's tow cable and slowly began to pull it in to their ship, as they reached the ship a transmission came through to his control console...

Now at a closer inspection he could see that an electrical burn had robbed the fox, at least temporarily of his sight, "My name is Creed are you alright in there?"

"More or less...no. With this burn I can't open my eyes and as far as I can tell my leg's broken..."

"You got a name?" Creed asked, it was a stupid question of course he did.

"Fox McCloud...and thanks for the help..."

* * *

**(As always I thank whatever fans there are to my stuff...and even those who don't. So if this gets what I consider to be enough reviews I'll continue indefinitely. Even if not though as...hell...I love writing. Don't forget to R&R people THX a mil...)**

_** -I will always be those footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox**_


	2. Chapter I

**(SkullFox recommends the following music...for inspirational purposes)**

**Demon Hunter**

"**One thousand apologies"**

"**My heartstrings come undone"**

* * *

**-Chapter I-**

**(AN: The chapters on this will be much shorter than the ones in most of my stories so chances are there'll just be a whole helluva lot of 'em**...**enjoy)**

Fox lay in Creed's bed, he felt a bit uncomfortable laying in a strange person's bed but at the moment he couldn't be too picky...had he stayed in that arwing much longer he'd most likely be dead. His fingers traced the thick bandages on his face, he could no longer feel the burn on his face but, as he'd feared before his right leg had been broken. He wondered where he was at the moment, this ship smelled worse than his did...and that was no small accomplishment. After the team had disband he lost the need to clean the place, there was a thick layer of dust, dirt, and random trash everywhere on the Great Fox. After some time sitting there he stood and slowly limped to a room, using what walls he could to guide him. He was happy to find it was the bathroom he was hoping for. He found it a bit hard to moved through a thick layer of debris on Creed's bedroom floor. He felt like he hadn't taken a leak in days, but after blindly fumbling around and nearly pissing in the sink he finally found the toilet...

**-000-**

In the kitchen of the ship Kursed was just being informed of their passenger...

"Look I don't see what the big fucking deal is!" Creed yelled in defense to Kursed's most recent verbal assault, "He agreed to pay us a lot of credits to take him to his flag ship! This is for the money...something we are in a pretty bad need of, Garex's ass didn't pay that well you know!"

"YOU THINK I DON'T FUCKING KNOW THAT!!" Kursed took a deep breath to calm her yelling, "I just don't like strange males."

Creed looked at the odd look on Kursed's face, "Stranger my ass. You know him..."

"Shut the fuck up Creed..." Kursed growled.

"So what happened, he find someone else? Cheat on you? Or did he just learn how much of a bitch..."

Creed was cut off by the sound of the charging blaster she now held under his chin...

"I warned you a long time ago to stay out of my fucking business..." Kursed said noticing that one of his arms held a blade to her gut.

"Sure you can pull that trigger without spilling yer guts?" Creed sneered, "Like I said we need the money."

"Don't pry into my life Creed...or I swear I'll collect on your bounty next."

Kursed started to leave the room before backing away from the opened door slowly as Fox limped through it using the walls to help guide his way through the halls. She hadn't wanted to see him but, now that she did she was a bit ashamed...not because she was opposed to helping him but, because now that she saw him in pain she wished he were in more. Even though she wanted him hurt she couldn't stand seeing her old love in the state he was in limping around like this it made him look weak, but also showed that he still had the determination of the Fox she once knew. As she felt a tear roll down the side of her face Kursed quickly made her way out of the room to avoid him altogether...

"Well nice ta meet you too..." Fox said sarcastically as he felt her brush past him, "Creed? You in here?"

Creed smirked, "Yeah I'm right over here...there's a chair about six feet to your right."

Creed was, for lack of a better word, impressed...this vulpine was half crippled on top of being blind but still seemed to insist that he could move around on a whim.

_'Boy's got a lot of heart...'_

Figuring the poor fox was probably hungry Creed went to the kitchen and came back with a small plate of food and a glass of water. As he sat the plate down in front of Fox, Fox misplaced his grasp at the foot grabbing Creed by the forearm. His head tilted slightly as he began to feel around; moving from Creed's metal forearm to his fingers, up his bicep to his shoulder...

"What the hell? Bionics?" Fox asked as he let go finally finding the sandwich on his plate.

"Nope...they're all me." Creed said moving his wrist around a bit while making a fist.

Fox swallowed the bit of food in his mouth, "Neural links...I thought those were outlawed."

"Yeah but...there are ways around laws."

Fox smiled, "I hear that...not all laws make sense."

Creed finally sat down across from Fox, "So 'the' Fox McCloud...Not someone I'd expect to find in this corner of space, not a safe place for a merc you know?"

"I'd pay mind to that...if I were a mercenary anymore." Fox replied with another bit of his sandwich, "I'm into retrieval...kinda like bounty hunting objects instead of people."

Creed kind of liked the sound of that, "There any good money in that?"

"If you know where to look...there are a lot of rich people looking for some rare and valuable shit out there."

"Well we're on a direct course for your ship." Creed assured the fox, "So how did you get stuck out here anyhow?"

Fox smiled, "It was really my own god damn fault. I was after a relic from Cerinia when this freak named Danzig stole it. Then I ended up chasing him into a small meteor shower, the first hit wasn't all that bad...accept the fact that it caused an arch of electricity from my console to do this to my fucking eyes..."

"Well you're a pretty luck fucker that's for sure...if that burn was any worse you'd be blind a lot longer than a few days."

Fox chuckled a bit, "Hey I'm grateful. If you didn't know so much about treating electrical burns I'd probably still be in pain."

"After the first meteorite hit my arwing I was pretty much flying blind...Shit..I'm lucky enough to be alive."

Creed had never heard of a Danzig, "So what about this Danzig person?"

"Well...I'm after him because that relic he took belongs to me. I'd kind of like it back..."

"What's this guy look like?" Creed asked.

"He's a Kewian; pretty big for a cat, white fur black stripes, missing ear on his left side, massive burn scar on the left side of his face too." Fox said producing a piece of paper and pen from his pocket blindly scribbling a number on it, "You two are bounty hunters..." He said passing the number to Creed, "...if you see him call me and let me know where he is. I can pay for the info, just not much...most of my money goes to re repairs of my ship. So how did you two meet anyway?"

"She tried to kill me..."

Fox laughed, "There's a helluva first date huh? Nice dinner but now you gots ta die?!" He said imitation a machine gun.

Creed laughed out loud, "Are you fucking kidding me? Kursed is the last person in this galaxy I'd go for. I can tell you she's got the looks and the body but...between you and me she scares the hell outta me. She comes off as the kind of woman that could be fucking yer brains out one minute...and blowing em out the next."

Fox grinned, "Enough jokes though...how long till we reach my ship."

"About an hour maybe two..."

**-000-**

Kursed couldn't stop thinking about it, why of all the places for him to show up did it have to be her ship? Thinking about the past was something she'd always attempted to avoid. It brought back far too many painful memories; her friends on the team, her time with Fox, even her time trying to make his jealous of the sick creep Panther..._Ugh..._just the thought of him was enough to make her sick, after their only real date he seemed to make it his goal in life to get her into his bed. It eventually got so bad that he tried forcing his way onto her, not a good idea...Apparently Wolf was raised a bit better than most gave him credit for and handled the situation nearly beating the cat to death before kicking him off the team. The hot waterfall that sprayed from the shower head was the only comfort she had at the moment...she didn't necessarily need to clean herself up, it was only for some sort of peace. Her thoughts constantly worked back to the day she'd gotten back at Fox for abandoning her. With Star Wolf's help she managed to take away his fame, and with Panther she managed to break his heart the same way he'd broken hers...as her thoughts proceeded to screw with her mind the relaxing shower began to loose it's effect on her as her emotions began to drag her down...but like always when she started thinking about the past, she found a way to retreat into her own mind to avoid those thoughts...

After her shower Kursed walked into her room, it was most likely the cleanest one on the entire ship; the bed was nicely made though a bit small, the floor was bare, and the walls were clean. She made her way to a small set of square indents on one of the metal walls and pressed a few buttons causing the drawers concealed with in the wall to attempt coming out before she struck the wall knocking their circuits back on-line. She went through her things a little at a time pulling out a pair of black lace panties, as she slid them on she looked at herself in a nearby mirror, she remembered back when she was a member of Star Fox, she'd have never worn such a color...but, now she had an understanding for the color...just as it was void of all other colors, so was she void of everything that once made her Krystal, very little of the old vixen remained...

Kursed huffed at the mirror as she clipped on a matching bra, "Good riddance."

As Kursed finished by fitting into a pair of dark blue jeans and a black tank top Creed's voice echoed through the ship's PA system, "Kursed we've reached his ship. He wants to talk to the captain of this ship so I guess that means you."

"Whatever I'll meet you in the docking bay..."

A bit angry with having to face him again Kursed stormed out of her room and began to walk down the halls. After a bit of time she realized that her small ship itself was in the docking bay of a much larger ship as the small port windows showed now signs of space. In the docking bay she could see that the bay doors were opened and Fox's arwing had already been moved out of her ship, the vulpine himself stood near the entrance of her ship's docking bay. His ear twitched toward her causing him to blindly whip his head around a bit too far looking to a wall that was beside her...

"I was hoping I'd get to thank you before I left...without the two of you I'd probably be dead right now." He said with a half assed smile.

Kursed fought every fiber of herself not to simply blow up in his face, "It's fine...We were headed this direction in the first place..."

"You know what?" Fox said asked tilting his head a bit towards her, "Your voice sounds...vaguely familiar...have we met before?"

"If we met I'm sure one of us would have remembered it.." She replied folding her arms across her chest, "So was that it we really need to go?"

"Actually...there was something else..." He said stammering towards her removing a picture from his pocket, "...I'm looking for this person."

Kursed very quickly snatched the photo with her closed eyes before opening them, it was just as she though, "Who's the blue girl?"

"Her name's Krystal..."

"Why is finding her so important?" Kursed asked.

"Honestly?..." Fox asked.

Kursed looked at his face, he looked like he'd be crying if the bandages weren't blocking his eyes, "I love her..."

Kursed bit her lip for a second, "I...If I find her I'll let her know you're looking for her."

She tried to give him the photo back but he told her to keep it, and produced another, "And this lousy piece of shit is named Danzig, I'm willing to pay you a good price just for telling me where I can find him."

Money...now this one she liked. The photo was of a white cat with several black stripes that came across the sides of his face...

"Why would you pay for that?" Kursed asked.

"He stole something from me that I need back. That staff was the only thing I had left of her...all I request is the info. Don't hurt him..." His face snarled angrily, "I'll do enough of that myself." He growled.

As Creed approached them Fox turned and walked off their ship and onto his own, "I left Creed with my com channel...I'll be waiting for your call!" He yelled over the roar of the engines.

Fox waited until he no longer heard the roar as their ship pulled out of the docking bay, and lowered his head against his chest sighing depressingly, "It was nice talking to you again..." He said to himself as he turned to head to the docking bay, "Computer...let's go home!"

ROB's voice was the only part of the bot left on the ship which echoed from the PA system, "Destination: Planet Sauria...ETA 5 hours and 23 minutes."


	3. Chapter II

**-Chapter II-**

-6:23am GTS-

Sauria

The top of Krazoa palace had become home to Fox over the years, it was a place that nobody ever looked to find him...but for the most part it was where they had met. It was three days since he spoke with her but, Krystal or Kursed's voice was still stuck in his head; she hadn't even said anything to him, her entire time on the ship with him there was spent in her room avoiding him. He never really needed her help or Creed's, but it was the only thing he was able to do to get her to speak to him, to simply act like he didn't know it was her. It overjoyed Fox to hear her voice again, but hurt him all that much more when they left the Great Fox. Creed had told him that it would be safe to remove the bandages from his face when he began to see light through them again, so it was clear that it was time to take them off now. As he slowly began to unwrap the cloth from his head he forced his eyes to stay shut, even the light through his eyelids made his entire head ache. He squinted a bit as he finally opened them, everything was a painful blur of light and color, it took several minutes before his eyes adjusted to the light of Sol rising over the Saurian horizon. It took him hours to find his way to his small camp that the top of the palace but, the sunrise from this spot had always been worth his time. It was as he seemed to be hypnotized by the view of Sol making the sea sparkling like a sheet of blue diamonds that he caught a glance of his face in the surface of the water at the bottom of his drinking mug...

"Damn it to hell...I look like a fucking raccoon."

The burn had scarred the skin on his face, only a narrow portion of fur was missing across his eye line stretching from one temple to the other, it pointed in a star-like manner along it's edges and it even covered a small bit of the bridge of his muzzle. It was as he ran his claws over the surface of the skin that he realized the scar would never allow fur to grow back to the location again. He remembered something from a while back and searched through his things until he found them. He refused to wear the sunglasses that Krystal got for him when they were dating because of the constant comments of him looking just like James, and the last thing he wanted to see when he looked into a mirror was his father. He blew a healthy amount of dust off of them before sliding them on, finding that they fit very well, and didn't have ridiculously dark lenses. He looked at himself in the reflection of his water again, the scar was always visible now, the shades did very little to cover it up, but it was a style he could get used to...

Still thinking of Krystal, Fox turned to the com system he'd set up in his small camp and punched in an all too familiar channel. The small square device produced a large image of a familiar looking, very attractive collie...

"General Peppy's office..." She cheerfully announced.

"Hey there Angie..."

Her expression jumped, "FOX!! Where have you been?! Peppy's been searching this entire system for you for years."

"Yeah...just patch me through to his office...kay?"

"Right...and it's good to see that you're okay Fox."

It only took a minute or so before the collie's face was replaced by that of the well aged, gray furred old hare, "Fox..." He said lightly.

"Peppy." Fox replied in step.

"Why haven't you called?" Peppy asked, "Still out on that crusade of yours?"

Fox lowered his head, "No...no more hunting, I already found her. She still hates my guts."

"I'm sorry Fox...I know how it feels to loose someone that important to you...but believe it or not it eventually stops hurting."

Fox was a bit confused, not once had Peppy asked about his face, "So what now?" Peppy asked.

Fox didn't know what to say he hadn't thought that far ahead, "I-I don't know...until now my life just meant finding Krystal and apologizing but, she doesn't even want to see me. I guess I'll just wander around and see what else is out there...I hear the Xenass Colony is pretty nice."

"As long as you stay out of Sector-5...place is kind of shady."

"It's been nice seeing your face again old timer...and don't bother trying to trace this transmission. It's been isolated." Fox said noticing that Peppy's hands were busy at work on his desk's computer, "...I told you when I left that I wasn't coming back...you should have taken my word for it...good bye Peppy."

It wasn't even hours before Fox had his camp picked up, and for the first time in over a year he left Sauria's atmosphere without intent of coming back. Hoping that he'd find a way to leave Krystal and her memories behind while he searched for a new life somewhere among the star systems of the galaxy.

* * *

**-Meanwhile on Katina-**

Creed lay there on a large leather sofa in their hotel room, he didn't feel like getting up yet. There was nothing for him to do today other than cleaning and maintaining his cybernetic arms. It was only recommended that he clean them every twelve months but, he found it necessary to do so every four months just in case. He had actually come to appreciate these new arms over the years, they'd saved his life more than once. Kursed had once asked him how he'd gotten them but, Creed didn't care to recall the particulars of the matter. He noticed that his blue furred partner was not in the room...she was probably out looking for another job for the two of them...she'd acted rather strange since talking with that McCloud person, he didn't understand what could have happened between them. He could tell she had feeling for the fox that still lay dormant that she was possibly trying to kill off...but either way he felt himself in a position to try comforting her in any way possible as he tended to look at her as a bit of a little sister...hell she even yelled at him the way his own sister used to, and despite the fact that she really did scare him at times, this was his real reason for never making a move on her...

His train of thought stuck he decided to do what he always did when his thoughts threatened to get the best of him; Creed made his way to a large stereo in their rather expensive looking room and turned it to whatever was playing on his favorite station. He always had a strange thing for Smooth Jazz, something about the sound of a saxophone tended to calm his spirits. It didn't take long for the calm melodies from the radio to clear out his mind. The only things left for him to do now was; to have a cup of coffee, call and check on the ship, and perform the maintenance on his arms.

"SON OF A BITCH!!" Fox's scream carried all throughout his ship as he slammed his heavy boot into the console he was working at.

The ship's engines had finally given out, he'd just called for an emergency tow only to find out that his pick up wouldn't arrive for several days as his particular situation was not considered a priority. He had no choice now then to walk through the ship collecting his things and packing them into his arwing's cargo bay. This only took him several hours. He didn't feel like waiting around for three days for a tow...so instead he called someone else; seems Bill Gray had his eyes set on the Great Fox as a sort of collectible. He was hasty enough in sending the credits to Fox's personal account which Fox was happy to learn was more than enough for a new flag ship. He was soon standing in the docking bay of the Great Fox for the last time...

"Well ROB we both knew this was eventually gonna happen...It's been a pleasure working with you..."

"Good bye Fox..." ROB's voice echoed into the docking bay.

Fox's arwing tore out of the ship's docking bay, he didn't look back...Fox had finally come to terms with everything that had gone wrong in his life and he realized what his problem really was...he simply never learned how to let go of the past. Now that he had he felt as though his life suddenly had meaning again somewhere out there. The Great Fox disappeared from his sight as he kicked on the small fighter's turbos pulling off a dizzying barrel roll as he tore off toward whatever awaited him...

Kursed found late at night that she couldn't sleep, every time she tried she had the same dream of watching the Great Fox pull away when Fox had left her behind...and worse yet to a moment that should have made her feel better about the whole thing but in truth made her feel like shit. When he'd come back to her and found her in Panther's arms, the betrayed look on his face tore at her heart much more than she cared to let on. The darkened streets of Katina weren't a place for a lady at night, but, in her current state of mind she was a touch worse than any mugger or rapist she was bound to come across in the dimly lit streets. As she walked around a corner she noticed the sound of footsteps behind her; at first there was only one set, then two, joined by several others until she could pick up five individual thought patterns...all with the same sick minded thought in their heads. To her pursuer's surprise their blue furred target turned down back alley...why would she have done something that stupid? Now nobody would be able to intervene with their intentions...

It was as the small group entered the alley that they froze seeing the blue vixen standing facing them with a perturbed look on her face, "Bad timing fuck bags." She growled.

It was just a small gang of wolves and raccoons, "Tony...Jake...go get her." The tallest wolf said issuing a raccoon and wolf to step forward.

The two rushed Kursed not knowing that she had actually ducked into the alley so that nobody could interrupt her once she got started. The shorter raccoon was unfortunately the first to reach her, he never saw the axe kick that drove her heel into the top of his skull forcing him face first into the pavement where she continued to stand on his head. The wolf however got the worst side as he sped in on her right throwing a punch at her face, Kursed dropped to one knee happy enough to see that he'd left himself open. She rose with a powerful uppercut into the split of his legs, the wolf stumbled back a few steps before opening his muzzle which dropped a disgusting spot of blood to the paved ground, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell to the ground...

The other three stood there in amazement as the other raccoon looked to their leader, "F-frank...she...she. That bitch just crushed Tony's sack man."

"GET THIS BITCH OFF ME MAN!!" The raccoon under her heal shouted, before she removed her foot driving it into his face, the limp rodent rolled into a nearby dumpster.

Frank snarled at their wrongfully chosen target, "Blake! Arnold!"

"Fuck you eh!" Another wolf replied, "I'm keeping my balls right where they are!" He said backing out of the alley before breaking into a full run.

The raccoon that was left behind rushed in on her, this one knew what he was doing. As he began to throw punches and kicks in an expert fashion. Unfortunately to his dismay Kursed was much better than he was. After finally fending off his attacks she found an opening driving the back of her fist into his face, she made a full spin landing an uppercut to his chin, and another spin before driving her fists into his chest with a force that sent him across the alley and back to his bosses feet. Who had finally reached his boiling point and whipped out a butterfly knife rushing after her slashing and stabbing at the blue vixen. The fist raccoon she'd attacked grabbed her by the ankle in time for Frank to drive his knife into her shoulder. Her face twisted into a monstrous glare of pure rage. He instantly found himself unable to move as she moved her palm toward his gut. Frank had never seen anything so frightening in all his life as he felt something build up in his stomach...For a minor second he let out a scream before his body literally exploded from the inside, spraying chunks of his body onto the walls of the alley. The raccoon that once held onto her ankle backed into a corner where he simply cowered in fear, as this creature began to stagger out of the alley the knife still lodged in her shoulder walking slowly toward the hotel...


	4. Chapter III

**-Chapter III-**

-Xenass Space Colony-

(2 week later)

Fox lived solely on his new ship, though still bigger than most ships of it's class, the small transport was a much lower scale than the Great Fox. He'd named the ship Dark Star because of it unique metallic black color, which made it shine like some sort of ominous black star when light hit it's highly reflective surface. It's body was slightly rounded which pointed into the hull giving int a slight teardrop shape. The insides of the ship were relatively nice, the walls were the same chrome color of the ones on the Great Fox when he had first gotten it. His new ship was built obviously to hold a crew of four as there were that many rooms, and opposed to the five decks on the Great Fox this ship had three; the bottom deck was where the engines and systems were kept, the middle floor was living quarters and the docking bay, and the top was for the bridge alone which was located in the back of the ship in the top of it's rounded end. Though he was happy to have a ship again, and a good one at that...he found himself short of funds, and hadn't eaten a decent meal in over three days...he didn't want anyone to recognize him as Fox McCloud here, that would only cause problems for him. To stop this he had allowed the stripe of white fur on his head to start growing again, and it was now able to hold a small ponytail in the back. His old flight uniform was now replaced by a pair of camo pants that were a bit baggy near the point where they'd been tucked into his heavy black combat boots, over his chest he now wore a black tank top that showed off hip peak physical shape, his blaster held across his lower back by a new holster he'd come to like the feel of...his shades seemed to never leave his face anymore, and around his neck hung a pair of blank dog tags each lined by a black rubber pad...

He flipped open the communicator on his wrist which he'd traded in for a black one that didn't have a Star Fox logo on it to check the time...

"Eight o'clock...better find some work somewhere if I want to eat tonight."

The upper levels of the colony were normal enough, sort of like a massive resort, but, he wanted nothing to do with that part of society...there were no needs for his particular talents. It was here in the proverbial shit hole of the colony that he would find the best work. He'd never been here before; the place looked worse than hell, the only light on the streets was that which came from the streetlights, the buildings were old and grungy stacking up to those used decades ago but faltering horribly to the present day's super structures used in modern cities. Most of them defaced by vandalism and graffiti from one gang or another trying to take claim of some sort of area around the colony. As he walked down the streets he noticed that several random animals examined him, one was obviously a mugger as he had a keen eye on the vulpine's wallet chain which dangled from his right pocket. Luckily enough for the mugger though he'd been in the business long enough to know when to pass on a target...

"Hey you..." Fox called to the ape that had been eyeing his wallet chain.

For a moment the Venomian thought about running by instinct but realized he hadn't done anything, "Yeah..." He finally answered.

"You know where there might be some work around here?"

The ape scratched his chin, "Might wanna try Nex's place down main street..."

"Thanks..." Fox replied before walking off, "...by the way, seems to me a pickpocket would make a better living in a richer neighborhood. Don't you think?"

The ape scoffed, "Tch...yeah right. Good luck getting up there from down here."

"Look I'd pay you for the info but, as far as credits go I'm sitting on a pretty low tank..." As Fox eyed the ape he realized that for a pickpocket he seemed to be in pretty good health, he didn't look very weak either, "...you ever think about being a mercenary?"

"What're you getting at? This some sort of a fucking joke?"

Fox chuckled, "Not really...you should consider it, it's not the Ritz but, most of the time you can make some good money."

With that said Fox headed off in the direction that the Venomian had pointed out to him. He found what he was looking for, a large bar called "the Underground"...fitting name since this entire section on the city seemed to be underground compared to the land above. It was...rustic, for the use of a more polite term. The red bricks the place was initially made of were so worn and weathered that he at first hesitated on walking inside, the bricks once dark red color was now nothing but a dull rusty color. The dank smell of booze and cigar smoke traveled from the front door as Fox walked inside. Rustic was an understatement, as soon as he entered the bar the green skinned iguana behind the bar had a rifle aimed at his face...

"I've never felt more welcome in my life..." Several animals at a nearby table chuckled.

As soon as the bartender realized that the new guy wasn't a threat he placed the rifle back under the counter, Fox took a quick look around the place; there were loose floorboards, spilled drinks, stomped out cigars all over the floor. Most of the animals at the bar's many tables where playing poker or just drinking, several on the bar's patrons were were passed out on their tables, a few call girls were standing in random corners waiting for one of the drunks to feel the need for one of their services, and a light music played from a practically ancient jukebox. Fox made his way to the bar counter and took a seat on an empty stool. Then waited for a moment that the bartender would have free, soon enough the reptile made his way to Fox...

"You own this place?" Fox asked.

The lizard scoffed, "Name's Nex Aryson...and I take it you aren't her for a drink."

Fox chuckled, "Am I that transparent?"

"Not really...you just have that look about ya..." Nex's words were cut off by the bar door opening.

From the reflective surface of the inside of his sunglasses' lenses Fox was able to make out this person without turning his head. It was a bulldog dressed in all black leather, a tattoo on his muscular left bicep showed that he was a member of a local gang...though Fox had no clue which one, they were all scum to him anyway. Fox didn't like the look of the dog anyhow as he made his way to the counter. The wrinkle faced canine stood at the counter across from Nex right beside Fox, sticking a small knife into the counter...

"Yo Nex...you ready ta pay up yet...you been stiffn us for a few months an' the boss ain't too happy."

Nex leaned over the counter, "Listen Slag...I told him just the same I'm tell'n you. FUCK OFF!"

Slag made a fast grab for the lizard's neck and started squeezing, "Maybe you didn't fuck'n hear me right...AHHHHHHHH!"

Slag's scream caught a lot of people off guard as he dropped Nex, who seemed a little impressed with what he'd just seen. Nex almost didn't even see the vulpine sitting in front of them move, but with a motion that seemed impossible Fox had produced an old military style black combat knife and slammed it into Slag's free paw that was now pinned to the wooden counter...

"Actually I think you're the one not listening...cause I'm pretty sure Nex just told you to fuck off..." Fox said not taking his eyes off the counter in front of him, "...you may want to listen before you have another accident."

Slag made a quick grab for the knife lodged in his paw and ripped it free before turning to Fox with a menacing look on his face. Fox didn't fight it when Slag took him by the collar pulling him off of his stool...

"You're pretty fucking smug for someone about to die."

Fox smiled, "I'd be scared...if I had something to be afraid of."

Before Slag could react Fox slammed his food into the dog's knee causing it to buckle beneath him...as soon as Slag fell to his knees Fox lifted his knee into the dog's face, then took a grip on the back of his head slamming Slag's face into the counter. He held Slag up long enough to take his knife back before letting the bulldog fall to the floor. Nex had a hard time believing his eyes; this vulpine just handed Slag's ass to him and Slag was twice his size...

"You said you're here for work right?" Nex asked wiping the blood from Slag's paw off his counter. At the snap of his fingers several of his patrons drug the beaten canine out of the bar, "I'll see what I can do. What's your name?"

"_Shit..." _Fox thought to himself, _"...all this time not wanting anyone to know who I am and I forgot the most important part..."_

Fox looked around for a moment before catching his reflection in a nearby drinking glass, _"Hmmm...that scar. Must be the only reason nobody recognizes me...Wait a second..."_ Fox looked back up to the lizard...

"Call me Scar."

* * *

**-Kew's outer aerospace-**

"10:33am"

Kursed didn't feel like waking up only to find out that not a one of their contacts had called them for any kind of job. She had managed to finally push the thoughts of McCloud out of her mind. Her scrap in the alley with the would be rapists had cleared that out of her mind and now that she was awake, the still healing stab wound in her right shoulder kept her mind occupied. The alarm next to her bed suffered a horrible fate under the crushing force behind her fist to stop it's mind numbing chatter. Having dispatched the nuisance she rolled over onto her stomach and closed her eyes happy to let sleep take her back over again. As fate would have it however she didn't get to sleep long as Creed's voice rang through her head ...

"You Kursed get your ass out of bed already...it's Chase...he's got a job for us."

Kursed rolled back onto her back throwing her blankets onto the floor, "Don't fucking yell...I've got a headache." Besides her underwear the only thing she wore at the time was a wrap of bandages over her shoulder.

"Well I recall someone telling you NOT to go out onto those streets at night by yourself. I know you're supposed to be the 'Big Bad Bitch' and all but even you have your limits. You're gonna get yourself fucking killed."

"Creed..." She only smiled at the fact that he cared enough to yell at her, "...shut the fuck up. You aren't my father."

Creed laughed at the comment, "Look just get your ass to the bridge. You know that sick fuck only talks to you."

Kursed made no rush to get her clothes on, a pair of black jeans and a gray tee shirt, "Yeah but, that's men for you..." She replied fixing her messed hair into it's normal ponytail, "...always wanting what they can't have."

She was right about Chase, the wolf had been infatuated with her from the first time they'd done business, Creed found it to be a pathetic display. Despite how much he came on to her she never gave him an inch, she only kept in touch for one reason; his little crush on Kursed made him overpay her for missions...it was a fact that she was happy to take advantage of. The lupine owned a shipping company that handled a lot of important shipments, from anywhere from Zoness or Corneria all the way out to the furthest reaches of the Krazoa system. As Kursed walked through the halls she was happy that she no longer was forced to trudge through random debris to get through the ship, the place was clean for the first time in half a year. She finally got to the bridge; the half circular room looked a lot different now. The computer terminals that lined the walls were no longer lined with random junk and discarded spare parts, the viewing window was cleaned to a nice shine, and even her chair near the center of the room was perfectly clean...

As she sat down Creed went to a terminal on the far side of the room, "I'll patch the signal through..."

"Gimme audio only...his eyes roam too much." Kursed said rubbing the sides of her head.

"You got it..."

After a moment a familiar voice spoke through the ship's PA system, "Kursed? Are you there I can't see you."

"Sorry Chase...but our imaging system is off line at the moment..." She lied, "...I hope this is referring to a job."

"Like always you're as perceptive as you are beautiful." Chase replied, "I need you and Creed to take care of someone named Taniks. Seems he's been high-jacking my freighters for their cargo somewhere around the Xenass Colony area...He could be taking the shipments to the colony or to the planet itself. We aren't sure, but the last shipment he stole was full of military grade weaponry from the C.D.D (Cornerian Defense Department)...so you two be careful. His men could be packing some serious heat."

Kursed looked to Creed who looked back to her and smiled nodding his head, "How much this job gonna pay?" She asked.

"Because of the serious nature of the circumstances...roughly 150 thousand. Plus the C.D.D has a 5o thousand credit reward for the safe return of the weapons, so 200 thousand if you can pull it all off."

Kursed spun her seat toward Creed, "How long is a trip to Xenass?"

"Hang on a sec..." Creed replied, "...about, 3 hours."

"Right then get us clearance..." Kursed replied, "And Chase we'll call you as soon as we find something."

"Good luck gorgeous...Chase out."

Kursed looked to Creed with a smile, "The fuck are you waiting for...lets go find those fucking guns."

* * *

(And now for a moment of randomness)

**Me: I tried everything, nothing worked. I even got out the razor and gave myself a porn star trim. Wanna see?** (Pulls down pants) **Check it out...**

**Everyone: Ahh!!**


	5. Chapter IV

**-Chapter IV-**

"7:09am"

Fox woke pretty early in the morning after all he needed to make it to the bar before opening...Nex had given him a standard job working at the bar until he would be able to find him something a bit better paying...but at least Nex had paid him for getting rid of Slag last night...Nex informed him that within the next few days they'd be visited by other members of his gang The Crazy 8's...stupidest name Fox had ever heard, then again he never understood gangs in the first place. His attire the other day had become a normal thing for him spare that he now often wore a dark jacket with a fringe of white fur around the neck that he'd bought from a street vendor the other day. Oddly enough as he exited his ship he found the Venomian mugger almost like he was standing guard over the Dark Star, it was a kind enough gesture but, the ape was slumped over his seat snoring into his own knees. Fox simply rolled his eyes and headed to the bar just in time to find Nex who was attempting to hold a flat of bottles while opening the door; the lizard was roughly taller than Fox, though no more muscular, the long scales on the top of his head hung over the left side of his face like some sort of dreadlocks, and under his always worn apron he wore a pair of blue jeans and a white shirt with rolled up sleeves...

As he approached the door Nex turned to him, "Scar good timing..." Nex said kicking the door open, "Grab that flat of whiskey will ya?"

Fox didn't reply, he simply did as his boss had asked and carried the surprisingly heavy plastic crate of liquor into the bar setting it on the counter...

"Rush hour in her usually starts at...9, people around here have a lot of reason to drink...but you won't have to worry about that until your job's done."

At the sound of the word job Fox's ears perked up, "What kind of job?"

"Depends. How do you feel about offing someone?"

Normally Fox would never consider such a thing but, this was a new life, "I'd ask what the person did to deserve my assistance to the afterlife."

"Actually for most of the job offers that come through here this is pretty honest work..." Nex explained as he moved behind the counter sorting through his new stock and setting the bottles on the shelf, "...the mark happens to be the leader of the Crazy 8s. Word has it he's been wreaking havoc on Sector 7 for over three weeks; animals are afraid to leave their homes day or night, from what I hear he's been flashing around some...lets say 'unique' weapons."

That caught Fox's ear, "How unique?"

"From the descriptions I've been given; Sonic disruptor rifles and PK-m1s..."

"Cornerian military arms? How the fuck did a back alley gang like them get a hold of an arsenal like that?"

Nex turned to Fox and began to wipe down the counter, "Beats the hell outta me...but there's a good reason those weapons are illegal. Scar...I understand if you don't want to do this...but the client is willing to pay over 80 grand for that fucker's life."

"How do I find these Crazy 8s?" Fox asked, 80 thousand credits was a bit much to pass on.

"Oh...they'll find you trust me. Word on the street is some fox with a huge scar on his face killed Slag..."

"But I didn't kill Slag?"

Nex cast him a sly grin, "Doesn't make him any less dead though dose it? See this is one of those bars...you fuck with it while it's still full and you got a mob of angry customers on yer ass. This is the only bar in this area, and the masses need a place to relax, drink, hang out..." Nex was cut off as a half dressed white wolf rushed downstairs,

He threw a small wad of bills on the counter, "Sorry I'm in a rush Nex...tell Sheila I'll see her tonight." The wolf seemed to have trouble getting his pants on as he rushed toward the door.

Nex laughed, "Have fun at work Jon-Jon...and tell your wife I said hi."

The wolf cringed at the mention of his wife and rushed out the door...

"...and some folk just come around here to escape their own shitty lives." Nex laughed.

Fox decided that he'd wait around and help Nex until a decent hour...if any of those gang member wanted him they knew where he'd be...and he'd be waiting...

* * *

**-Xenass's outer aerospace-**

Kursed was happy enough to find that the small green planet that she viewed through the ship's viewing window was small...but no less a bitch to search. She waited for a short time before setting their scanners to search the planet over for any signs of ships outside of any city limits. It took several hours of waiting and she'd fallen asleep with her head propped up by her fist. Creed just sat by as her light snore echoed through the bridge, working on his arms with several small tools. Finally after what seemed like an eternity of waiting Creed shook Kursed waking her up...

"You're gonna want to take a look at this shit."

Kursed yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, "Scan's finally done? Well that didn't take for fucking ever...What the fuck?"

As Kursed looked over the scan's results her eyes widened, there were hundreds maybe thousands of destroyed freighters lining the bottom of a massive gorge several hundred miles away from any nearby city...

"There would be enough weapons an supplies in those to fuel an army..." She remarked.

"Or start a war." Creed added glancing over to her.

"Lets get down to that gorge and find out what the fuck is going on." Kursed sad standing up.

As she looked over to Creed he stood up stretching his back, "I've been wanting to wrap these arm round someone all week."

"And you call me sick..." Kursed said.

"Nothing wrong with enjoying your work..." Creed replied, "...or the sound of crushing under your hands."

Kursed smiled, "Yeah you can keep you fucking arms...I'll take my blaster, though I really wish I had my..." She cut herself off before she started thinking about Fox, "...ah forget it."

The two headed for their fighters in the docking bay, stopping by the armory...if you could indeed call it that; their armory was just a supply closet full of weapons confiscated from dead animal that had decided to try killing the two of them. Kursed always carried her blaster, but she also had a thing for the Mk-450 assault rifle she'd taken from an attacker about a year back on Kew. Creed on the other hand didn't like relying on blasters and guns but admitted to Kursed and himself long ago that they were necessary, he was after all damn near surgical with a shotgun, the snail clip on hi s shotgun would only ever be filled with slugs since he really didn't care for buck shots, the only other weapon he carried was a small assault rifle called a SIGMAG. When they felt they were properly equipped the two boarded they fighters and headed out...before long they were breaking into Xenass's atmosphere...

* * *

Fox was beginning to loose his patience though he did a good job hiding it while helping Nex serve his customers drinks. Soon enough though everyone, spare whoever the girls had taken upstairs were all gone and Nex and Fox began to clean up whatever blood, booze, and other crap had been spilled on the floor. It was as Fox sat the chairs on top of the tables that he began to wonder why the 8s hadn't sent anyone...Nex had made it quite clear that they'd want to get revenge on him for killing Slag...but there was nobody there at any point during the day. Soon enough they had finished cleaning the place and Fox had no other choice then to head back to the Dark Star which had slowly become his living quarter since it was so close to the bar and he really didn't want the hassle that would come from getting a motel room. Unfortunately about a block or so from his ship two animals stood in the middle of the street; he couldn't tell what kind of animals they were, their bodies and heads were covered in black gear that had a glossy shine to it. At first he wasn't sure what to think, they were wearing Enforcer's armor...

The reached behind them retrieving weapons, "ENEORCERS MY ASS!!" Fox yelled pulling his blaster and diving for cover behind a dumpster getting off several shots in mid dive.

He tried to think of something to do until he heard the sound of something knock against the side of the dumpster he'd taken refuge behind. As soon as he spotted the small round device that landed near his feet he ducked into a nearby alley before it had the chance to go off, Fox expected and explosion but he had predicted wrong...

_FWOOM!! _

After the massive concussive sound wave Fox found himself on the ground holding his ears, the sound was so shrill that his vision doubled over. It took moments for the sound to vanish but, as Fox finally found the ability to stand he found that his equilibrium was fucked. He looked to his paw which had been covering his ears had wet palms...blood. He couldn't hear anything even as loud as he screamed the word 'FUCK'. How could he beat them now if he couldn't even hear them coming?

"_Come on you fucking idiot think..."_ He mentally shouted at himself, _"...Enforcer armor, resists blaster fire...gonna have to do this the old fashion way."_

The two dark armored animals made their way into the ally...

"Tee...there's blood on the ground. You search here I'm going further into the alley...you see anything call me in. This son of a bitch is history."

"Kay...you be careful in there, this guy knows what the fuck he's doing...that sonic grenade took out his hearing for now but...something about him just freaks me out." The second one said, "If you find him just flush him out this way we'll hit him from both sides."

Kay then began to walk down the alley until he turned a corner and vanished from sight, Tee on the other hand began to search the area up and down for the vulpine that had either run or hidden from them. He checked everywhere even the dumpster that sat just outside the alley. Fox may have been deaf at the moment but, he knew everything about modern day weapons, and Enforcer armor as old as the suits these two were using had a massive downfall, they were built for the use of sonic riot grenades like the one that had handicapped him for the time, which meant that for the most part the helmet was soundproof. Tee never saw it coming, he'd searched the dumpster once but, not thoroughly. He thought about checking the dumpster again but, simply leaned against it.

"_I hate this job." _He told himself.

He dropped his weapon as Fox's knife slid silently into the back of his neck, even if he wanted to there was no way to call his partner, the knife's blade had exited through his windpipe. Blood gushed from the wounds and Tee's body began to shake violently as Fox held him in place waiting for the convulsive fits to subside. He had to make sure the animal couldn't reach his weapon or he might have strength left to finish Fox off. As soon as the armored animal's body stopped fidgeting Fox let him fall to the hard stone ground. Within moments Kay was back,apparently some of the grotesque gargling sounds coming from Tee's impaled neck had gotten through the radio...Fox of course was nowhere near the scene. Kay realizing what had happened pulled off his helmet and threw it down beside the body of his fallen comrade, he would not fall to the same handicap, though now he regretted now listening to Tee earlier, deaf or not this fox had every clue as to what he was doing. He obviously knew that the grenade was only a means on which to even out the playing field, they'd have taken off their helmets at any time but, then their protection from his blaster would have been compromised. It was the older Enforcer unit's greatest downfall, which was eventually corrected but, getting your hands on the Vc-12 model of the armor would be a feat in itself. The light furred fox checked over his things before readying his weapon. Fox had no hearing now so wherever he was Kay knew he definitely had to be able to see him. As he walked back toward the alley a blaster shot glanced a large chunk out of his right ear causing him to instantly jump back away to the wall by Tee's corpse. Unfortunately for Kay, this was Fox's intent...

Kay had not even noticed the sonic grenade missing from his partner's things when it rolled out of the alley...it had been delayed and there was no time to get out of the way. He threw his hands over his ears in a vein attempt to keep out the sound but, it was no good...it would have been a better idea to keep the helmet on. Kay recovered after a moment the sound still ringing in his deaf ears. The still disoriented vulpine managed to begin to walk down the street staggering from this point to that point, catching his balance on random things in his path until he could regain his balance which was thrown off by the damage to his ears. Unlike Fox who'd taken his time to hide and let his ears recover enough to regain his balance Kay was at the moment trying to retreat, not knowing that he was being stalked from the rooftop of a nearby dilapidated building. Fox only had his knife now, something had gone wrong with his blaster in the alley, the shot that took Kay's ear was the only shot he got off before it refused to fire again. As Kay finally regained his balance he looked to the ground to notice a familiar shadow, he reacted with just enough time to catch the flying fox by the wrist tossing him through the windshield of a nearby hovercar. Though to the both of them the impact was nothing more than a violent shower of silent shattered glass, the impact set off several car alarms nearby.

The impact had thrown Kay's rifle from his hands, forcing himself to draw out his own combat knife. He made his way over to the vehicle but, there was nobody inside, Kay managed to advert his eyes from the car's insides just in time for Fox to silently lunge at his face, they both made a stabbing motion for each other's faces but managed to catch each others knife hand by the wrist locking them in a struggle to gain the upper hand, but the fight would go on no longer. In a display of cheep tactics Kay kneed Fox in the crotch forcing his grip to give in as he fell to his knees, this time Kay kicked him in the face laying Fox to his back. Kay picked up his nearby rifle but as he turned to face Fox, he was taken off his feet as a silent bullet forced a spray of thick blood from the side of his head at the same time forcing his body to twist to one side as he felt to the ground, the hole in his head forcing blood out of his nose and mouth. Fox looked to the direction the bullet had to have come from to see the Venomian from the this morning sitting on top of the Dark Star holding his rifle in the air over his head. It was then that he decided that he'd need to talk to the ape once his hearing recovered and he could once again have a standard conversation. He originally wanted to leave one of the two alive long enough to get some sort of information, but seeing as the grenade had robbed him of his hearing. Fox simply picked up Kay's weapon and ran slowly made his way toward his ship, his breaths hurt, he knew for certain that his flight through the windshield of that car had damaged his ribs...he didn't hit hard enough to break anything but they were bruised or cracked for certain. He'd start his hunt for the rest of the gang in the morning...before they'd have a chance to send more men after him. But still...

"_Where did they get that kind of gear?"_

* * *

**(FYI the Enforcer armor was inspired by an old ass comic book based off of Judge Dredd. It was made for riot control or something like that; alot easier to arrest someone who can't hear or stand up strait right?)  
**


	6. Chapter V

**-Chapter V-**

"Xenass's surface"

Kursed and Creed landed a short distance from the bizarre spacecraft graveyard, not to far that they couldn't make a break for their fighters if need be, but not too close that they could be spotted by any unfriendly animals occupying the area. They made sure that their ships were also set, if they didn't return within a set amount of time their fighters would automatically set off their distress beacons. Creed always insisted on taking point ahead of Kursed, he felt a brotherly need to keep her safe even if she did call him an idiot for doing so. Kursed didn't like the idea of depending on a male for protection, but if Creed wanted to be a meatsheild who was she to stop him? This was her front, but in truth she often worried about him getting himself hurt of killed...she'd grown accustom to having him around and wasn't in a hurry to see what it would be like coping with not having his help...he did kind of remind her of her older brother that had died defending Cerinia...he was just a bit more mouthy...

The two trudged through the thick underbrush of the jungle like area that surrounded the gorge that was their destination, the trip was for the most part...dull as Creed had worded several times. Kursed would simply reply by telling him to stop bitching and to keep his eyes and ears out for anyone that might be dangerous. Minutes turned to hours as they made their way through the lush jungle floor, but after time Creed started to slow his step and eventually stopped...

"You hear that?" He asked looking to the canopy.

Kused tried to hone her ears in on a sound but there was nothing...absolute silence, "Where'd the birds go?" She asked readying her rifle.

"Exactly...they were everywhere a few minutes ago...I can't even hear them now."

Kursed reached out with her mind to search for any type of activity, and finally found something, "The gorge is right past the brush and trees out in front of us."

"How do you know?" Creed asked pulling out his shotgun.

"Because there's a guard over there bitching to himself about his shift."

Creed sighed, "God damn. You know I'd give anything to be able to do that?"

Kursed chuckled, "Get in line fucker...but until then lets move. I wanna know what he's protecting in a field full of wasted supply ships."

"You stay here..." Creed said handing Kursed his shotgun, "..we're gonna want this first few kills to be nice and quiet."

Creed started to walk off before Kursed grabbed his shoulder, "Remember...quietly."

"Tch...I'm insulted."

"Really..." Kursed raised her voice a little, "Last time you said 'quiet'...you threw a small car through the fucker's front door."

Creed smirked as he shrugged his shoulders, "He wouldn't open the door...It worked didn't it?"

"No noise..." Kursed said pulling him closer to the threatening glare on her face by the collar of his shirt.

"Okay...I promise. I won't throw anything bigger than I am okay?"

A smile tugged at the corner of Kursed's muzzle, that was a pretty good compromise for him, "Good...just try to make this quick."

Creed was happy enough to have a few animals to himself, he rarely got this chance for this anymore. He rather quickly vanished into the underbrush, and from Kursed's sight...but she had a way of keeping her eye on him. She used her telepathy to keep their minds linked, Creed was used to the feeling as it was often how they acquired information from certain sources, from this standpoint she could see everything he was doing while still seeing everything near her. Her sight however at the time of doing this was slightly disoriented as her vision and his overlapped before her eyes. Creed made his way along the brush until the jungle gave way to the massive gorge that opened up before him; the massive scar in the land had steep jagged walls and stretched on forever. The entire length of the place as far as the eye could see was littered with the remains of various types of ships. As he looked on he spotted several animals; a wolf a bit far off to his left sitting on a downed ship's wing, a raccoon stood near another ship a bit further off by to his right, he was obviously taking a leak, and a bit further out there was only what he could make out to be a sniper...

"_He could pose a problem..." _Creed thought to himself knowing that Kursed could hear him.

"_Maybe not give me a minute..."_ Kursed replied.

Creed crouched behind the bushes and waited...and after a few minutes he could hear a shrill woman-like, yet manly scream as the sniper began firing in random directions. He couldn't help but smile, he'd seen her do this before, she'd even done it to him once. If your defenses are down and she can get deep enough into your mind she could actually force you to hallucinate. She wouldn't explain to Creed how it was done, often claiming that someone as stupid as he was could never understand something so complicated. He could only sit by and wonder what she could possibly be making the poor bastard see that would make him loose it like that. To Kursed however it was perfectly clear; as she delved into the person's mind she found that this chameleon named Ivan had kill a lot of innocent people as he spent a good portion of his life as a mugger of the worst sort, killing those he robbed before taking everything they had. The sight of all the victims of his past slowly rising from the wrecked ships , some with missing limbs, others with half rotten flesh held in their jaws; one missing an eye, another missing her muzzle completely, another with the skin removed from half his face...all slowly making their way to his post mumbling his name in horrid voices calling for him to join them...Another shot rang out and Kursed could no longer feel his thoughts, she took a moment before reestablishing her link with Creed...

"_What the fuck just happened?"_ Creed asked.

"_I guess I overdid it with the hallucinations...he shot himself."_

Creed sighed to himself, _"I'll get back over there to you. After a display like that they're gonna be extra watchful."_

"_Good idea..."_

Soon enough the two were together in Kursed's small hiding place inside a hollowed out old downed tree, "I'll go back at sunset...better chance of not getting caught by the glare off my arms."

"Good idea..." Kursed said handing Creed his shotgun, "...but now I just want to know what's in that wreckage that much more."

* * *

**-Back on the Xenass Colony-**

Fox was more than ready as he woke the next morning, his ears were clear of the ringing but, he felt like he had a massive hangover...his head was pounding and far worse off his ears hut were incredibly sensitive at the time. He got dressed and headed out into the colony with his attacker's weapon from last night. He'd done some short studies on it, and from what he found he was happy that they never had a chance to fire them. A series-3 Trion class Sonic Disruptor rifle, the mechanics behind the weapon were ingenious if not as short bit ineffective, they could fire a charged burst of Hyper-sonic sound waves capable at close ranges of shattering steel supports to buildings, the weapon's most grievous fall, like that of a common shotgun was it less than perfect range, as the projectile was no more than a blast of sound it tended to loose power over distance traveled, but even at a distance the projectile produced enough impact to indeed make you wish you hadn't lived through it...even at a distance of 600meters or roughly 200feet, the impact could still pulverize bone and to a lesser extent damage internal organs often causing a loss in equilibrium and atrocious nausea. While at a closer range of up to 60meters or roughly 30feet the impact could literally force the body to collapse on itself from the massive amount of pressure put on the body.

As he made his way out of his ship still cradling his head as every step he took made his skull feel like it would suddenly split. This didn't help matters when the Venomian that had possibly saved his life last night ran over...

"Hey!" He called to Fox.

"Ahh...Not so fucking loud. God I hate those grenades." Fox said slapping his paws over his ears.

"Shit...sorry." The ape replied in a much lower tone.

"I wanted to thank you for the help last night...um..." Fox said extending a paw.

"James..." The ape replied shaking Fox's paw, "...James Callaway."

Fox chuckled a bit, "There's irony for ya..." He said, "...my father's name was James."

"It was my pleasure helping...see you're the first person to talk to me in over 2 years...I had to help."

"Well on either note...why don't you follow me to the bar, I'll get you a drink, and something to eat..."

A smile wiped across the brown furred ape's face and without a second though followed Fox to the bar. Nex seemed a bit surprised to see Fox alive and quickly took the fox and ape by the arms leading them into a room behind the bar. The room was used to store liquor and had a small round table with three chairs, Nex obviously used the small dank room for meetings of some sort...

"Sit down..." He almost demanded.

The two animals did as he requested...

"What the fuck is wrong with you Scar?" The lizard asked, "You left those bodies sitting in the middle of the street for the whole god damn world to see."

"Well I'm sorry..." Fox retorted sounding sarcastically angry, "...but at the time I was a bit fucking deaf from a sonic grenade, I'm just happy I wasn't any closer to the damn thing or I'd probably still be hard of hearing." He finished setting his new disruptor rifle on the table.

"Now who the fuck are you?" Nex asked turning toward James.

"That's James. He saved my ass last night, so cut him a little slack."

"Fine...you two look hungry. I'll send out for something...but I want to know what happened when I come back in here." Nex said leaving the room.

There was a long silence before Fox finally looked to James, "Say you spend a lot of time on the streets...you know anything about this gang, calls themselves the Crazy 8s?"

"Is that who those two were last night?" James asked sounding a bit surprised, "I seriously doubt it. Disruptor rifles or not, they wouldn't have hesitated to shoot if they were from the 8s. Probably hired guns...Wait. You killed Slag didn't cha'?"

"More or less..." Fox replied shrugging his shoulders, "...so if you could tell me what you know it might help."

"Okay...see I used to run with a few members of the gang. I wasn't a member, but they were tough customers and at the time I kinda pissed off one of the gangs in Sector-11 so...you know protection. So this is all I know okay?" James said letting out a quick breath, "Honestly they don't act like a gang at all, no turf wars, no nothing they just keep to themselves and seem to randomly attack places for no obvious reason...which I think is a front to keep up appearances. Their leader's name is Taniks...now I've never met him but from what I hear he's a pretty fucked up piece of work. Word from the guys I was running with was that he actually escaped from Styx Penal colony...but that's hard enough to believe as it is..."

"What about weapons and such..." Fox asked, "...you know where they'd come across military grade stuff like those two last night?"

"No that's what I don't understand..." James replied, "...if those two last night were from the 8s they couldn't possibly have that kind of equipment. The stuff would be way too expensive through the black market...unless they stole it all."

"Look...I'm going to go out on a limb here and tell you that I've been hired to kill this Taniks person...and I think I can use your help."

James was a bit speechless for a moment as he shifted his eyes to the wall and then the table, "What 'cha got in mind."

"I was hoping you'd say that..." Fox said pulling a small pill from a compartment on his communicator, "...I need you to get in contact with your friends from the 8s." He said handing the pill to James, "That is a micro transmitter...you slide that into your ear and I'll be able to hear anything you or anyone else says, and you'll be able to hear me. I need you to get them to tell you where Taniks is, what kind of guard he may be under, how many are in the gang, any info you can get. Got that?"

James slid the small white pill into his ear, "No problem...um...and this may not be the right time. But I'm getting paid for this right?"

Fox couldn't help but to laugh...at least the ape's mind was in the right place at the moment. Soon enough Nex entered the room with several boxes of take out from some restaurant or other and took a seat so that he could hear Fox's story about his encounter last night...

* * *

**-Meanwhile on Xenass's surface-**

Creed was incredibly silent for someone his size, the fact often scared Kursed considering he could sneak up on just about anyone...then again 6 years in the most advanced prison in the Lylat system could do that to you. Kursed watched him from the edge of the jungle and through her telepathy, the guard as they had suspected had been stepped up since Isac's little breakdown, but luckily they were well spaced out. Creed seemed to have already picked out his first target and a weapon for the first kill, what looked like a triangular shard from the Turillium alloy hull of one of the wasted ships, from her view it didn't look too lethal but, used with the force of pneumatic powered arms that could flip a small vehicle into the air, anything could be quite lethal if Creed wanted it to be. She adverted her eyes a bit as Creed crept up behind the wolf with eerily quiet footsteps before she could hear the crunch of the small shard plowing it's way into the poor animal's skull. She'd always admired his ability to kill, in the most brutal fashions, without the slightest ounce of remorse for his target, at times she wondered it he derived some sort of sick pleasure from it but, he was always so calm in demeanor when they were alone...maybe she just had that influence on him. Creed's next target was on a small ridge overhead, a raccoon nonetheless. Kursed was a bit worried whether or not he could reach the raccoon but, changed her thoughts as Creed bent down and picked up a small rock roughly the diameter of a grenade and hurled it at the creature with an amazing accuracy. Kursed had no clue how much force was behind his crude projectile but, the spurt of blood that shot from the animal's head told her that it was with more than lethal force as the raccoon's corpse fell from the ridge...

"_Nice fucking shot..." _Kursed spoke into his mind.

"_Katina High...Powerball state champ four years in a row..."_ Creed proudly replied.

Unfortunately one of the other animals was close enough to hear the poor creature's impact as his body fell to the mass of ships below. In a small bit of panic as the other animal reached his fallen comrade Creed rushed in, his strides still rather quiet for a running body his size. The bear ha d just said something through his radio as he managed to hear Creed's last footstep... "FU--" His curse was cut off as Creed's right arm drove a powerful clothesline across the creature's neck. Kursed half expected the attack to decapitate the poor animal entirely but, instead the animal folded over onto the back of his neck which had obviously been crushed from the impact...A gunshot rang out and Kursed's link with Creed fell...

"CREED!!"


	7. Chapter VI

**-Chapter VI-**

"Xenass"

Kursed was beginning to panic, she couldn't tell whether Creed was alive or dead...she'd lost contact with his mind before at moment's he could be a little hard to read, but alive or dead he had been shot. She couldn't hold back anymore as Kursed rushed out toward Creed hoping that she'd find him alive but fearing that she'd find him dead. She'd known him for three years, and he was the closest friend she had...the only friend she had, the thought of loosing him brought tears to her eyes as she ran through the mess of debris. She was relieved and disturbed; Creed was alive and at the moment the one that had shot him in the leg was violently convulsing as she watched Creed's metal arms prying the poor echidna's skull apart like a ripe melon. Another animal barreled past Kursed and fired two shots causing Creed to drop the mangled echidna to the ground...one of the bullets had struck him in the gut but, Creed didn't seem to care. He bolted forward clutching the animal's weapon, a light squeeze from his hand being enough to bend the weapon's barrel into a useless angle, the fully armored animal punched Creed in the face, but, Creed's counter punch pushed through visor, helmet, and everything in between. For a moment he couldn't get his arm free as his blood drenched fist was lodged in the animal's skull, until he swung his arm back flinging the body aside like a child's used up toy. There was a powerful rage in his eyes the likes of which Kursed had never seen before...She tried to reach out to his mind but, something kept forcing her back. Suddenly Creed shot his gaze to a spot behind him where another armored animal was cowering near the gorge wall praying that Creed would not attack again. There was no such luck, the enraged fox rushed to the animal and with his machine like grip on the creature's neck forced it against the stone wall...Kursed still didn't know what to do, she was still trying to get through to him but kept being forced out of his mind. Suddenly Creed reached out and pulled the helmet from the creature's head and Kursed no longer met any resistance trying to get into his mind but no matter how much she called to him he gave her no response...

Creed found himself starting into the light green eyes of a crying young vixen, his other arm seemed to be frozen, cocked back and ready to crush her face like the last unlucky animal, "Please don't kill me..." She pleaded.

Kursed rushed in beside him, "Creed!! What the fuck is your problem! She's just a kid! Let her go!" She yelled trying to pull the young fox from his grip.

No matter what she tried Kursed couldn't break his grip, even for a female she was strong, but no match physically for his robotic grip. Kursed noticed that Creed's grip had loosened quite a bit but still wasn't releasing her.. The girl kept pleading for Creed to let go until Kursed reached over and clamped her muzzle shut...

"Shhh...he's not gonna hurt you."

As they both looked to Creed they noticed that tears were beginning to leave streaks under his eyes, his breaths had become labored somewhat, and his body was beginning to shake for some reason. Suddenly the cream furred vixen fell to the ground , she'd passed out moments before he'd let go, Creed seemed completely incoherent for the first minute or so after he'd released the vixen from his potentially deadly grip.

"You okay Creed?" Kursed asked as she noticed his tears still fell from his face and his gaze was frozen to the ground below him. His only reply was a weak nod. "Good then grab her and lets get the fuck out of here...she can tell us anything we need to know. Who knows how many they'll bring next time?"

Creed replied lifting the limp vixen onto his shoulder and limping off toward their fighters, Kursed had no idea what had just happened...she'd never seen him act like that before, and the brutality of what he'd done was even more than he normally used. It could have developed into a serious problem had the sight of that girl's face not somehow snapped him out of his uncontrolled rage...she wasn't sure if she could help but she knew she had to try...

* * *

**-Nex's Bar-**

Fox and James both finished their sides of what had happened last night after closing hours for the bar, the bottle of Vodka they three had been working on during the story was all but drank up. As they finished the food that Nex had brought to them he nodded setting his glass back on the table. Their stories worried him a bit, now that he'd heard it the gang's activity never did seem like much of a gang to begin with, everyone was just so scared by the idea about another gang shooting the place up that they where just happy the 8s weren't killing people left and right...

"It's funny really...until you two mentioned it. I never really looked at it that way...but if they aren't a gang what the fuck are they up to?" Nex asked.

Fox stood up stretched his back, "That's what we're going to find out tomorrow. I need to get James fitted with some gear...before we go through with our plans..."

Fox and James made their ways out of the bar and down the street, the two bodies from list night had long since been moved by the proper authorities...a group that James pointed out only showed up when they weren't needed. When they arrived at Fox's ship James seemed unusually impressed by practically everything, it would just so happen that the poor boy was born and raised in the colony...quite possibly why a thief was so good with a rifle. He'd never even been aboard a ship this size before, and as transports went the Dark Star was relatively small. Fox led him around for a short while showing the boy around; the training hall which Fox was happy to say was a bit larger than he had expected, the docking bay, the kitchen, and finally the living quarters. James was finally let to a room not too far down the hall from Fox's...

"You can stay here..." Fox said, "...computer palm scan on room 3."

James was not new with this procedure, the small, square, green lit panels were used everywhere, he placed his left palm on the center of the pad which washed over his hand with green light three times...

"I should be finished programming the computer and everything by the time you get back tomorrow night." Fox said.

"Wait what are you talking about?"

Fox chuckled a bit, "What, you don't wanna join me? You know if that is the case you can stay here when I'm done, I can always find a partner somewhere else. Though I don't think I'll find another sure shot like you for some time, considering I met you by accident."

James was a bit speechless at first at least until it sunk in, "If I do join you...Could you teach me to be a pilot. My father flew for the Venomian Empire a long time ago...I always wanted to know what it's like..you know just once..."

"No Problem kid...I'll have to buy you a fighter though. Not a problem with the amount of money I'll make if we ever kill off this Taniks guy."

"So what then?" James asked, "This...this is..."

"It could be home if you want it to be." Fox replied, "I owe you that much at the least for saving my skin back there last night."

James smiled brightly, "Yeah...that'd be pretty cool."

"Good..." Fox said shaking the boy's hand, "...that makes you second in command. You know where the armory is, it's small but it is there. The kitchen is surprisingly full after Nex's help the other day...kinda overpaid me for the work I did in the bar...probably has something to do with that dumbass fucker Slag."

"Did you really take out Slag with three shots? He was a pretty good fighter."

Fox went back over the moment in his mind, "No..." He answered walking down the hall, "...technically the knife counted as four."

Neither of the two had trouble sleeping that night, especially the young Venomian, who hadn't seen a fresh real bed in months. Fox stayed up long enough to go through his normal nightly exercise routine, about 40 minutes at the most, he was happy enough to get a day of rest, after his fight the other night...his head still hurt something terrible...but hopefully sleep would be the perfect cure...

* * *

**-Meanwhile on the surface of Xenass-**

Kursed still couldn't figure it out. Okay her partner had gone off the deep end for a minute or two after taking a bullet. He seemed normal enough now, she kept trying to get into his head but, now he was willfully holding her from it. He hadn't left the girl's side since they had arrived and placed her in his bed, he'd oddly agreed to sleep somewhere else. For the longest time there was nothing said until Kursed brought her friend dinner...

"Hey..." She said setting his food on the nightstand, "...what's wrong with you?" She asked in as much of a Krystal like tone as she could, "I know you're from Xenass...do you know her?"

Creed nodded very slowly...

Kursed developed a sly smile as she nudged his shoulder with her elbow, "You dog. I didn't know you liked em young."

"She's...my baby sister."

Kursed cringed a bit, _"Ouch...so that's what it feels like. How did Fox live so long with his foot in his mouth?"_

Creed slowly started eating, "I left her with our parents when she was six. Probably doesn't even remember me, then again I did spend six years in prison, I was gone for three years before that, plus the damn near three years I've been traveling with you. Eighteen...she still has the same face. She looks just like mom."

"Creed why were you in prison?" Kursed finally asked after over two years on not barging into his life.

"Don't..." He replied.

"Don't what?" Kursed replied not realizing she'd done something.

Creed turned a half angry half pleading look to her, "Just don't go there..."

"Okay then why did you leave your family?"

Creed took a few bites of his food, "My father disowned me when I was only fifteen, kicked me out and told me to never come back. He wasn't exactly father of the year material. See he hated the military and because Lia wanted me to become a pilot I did. Dad found out one day when my CO called for me to tell me that I was being shipped off to our old home planet Katina for further training. The military was why dad moved us out to this backwater planet...I always showed too much interest in flying for his liking..." Creed finished a bit more of his food, "Anyhow when he found out I joined the military behind his back he told me to never come back...he wouldn't even let me say good bye to Lia or mom. So rather than to have to fight my own father in front of Lia when I got back I just stayed gone. I thought this kid would've been long gone from here by now, she must have gotten involved in the military or something...I just hope it's nothing too bad..."

"Either way...she could have the information we need. Being your sister may incline her to help us."

Creed finished his plate, "I need a shower..." He said standing up.

"Just...go use mine. You look like you could use a little time alone."

"Yeah...thanks..." Creed said walking slowly to the door.

Kursed smiled, "Step on it bitch."

Creed laughed a little to himself, "Thanks...I needed that." He said finally walking out the door.

Sitting in the hot water from the shower helped relieve his mind of a lot of stress, he hoped that Lia would remember him, but he had serious doubts. He finally finished and got dressed, paying extra attention to drying his arms, though they were waterproof, he didn't like them to be wet for some reason. He slowly trudged back to his room. He walked in only to find that she had woken up and was now clutching his blankest as she saw him. He looked at the fear in her eyes and instantly adverted his eyes, but not before the young vulpine had seen something. Her knees were a bit wobbly when she stood up, but she cautiously walked over to the large, metal armed fox. She ran a paw over his right arm, Creed recoiled to the touch as if he feared the arm would attack on it's own. She then reached up and moved the fur on the side of his neck, the poor girl's eyes began to pool over with tears at the sight of a long scar under his fur...

She managed to swallow the lump in her throat, "It-it can't be. C-creed?" He didn't need to answer as she noticed the tears running along his down-turned muzzle.

"You're alive..." Lia said in an unbelieving voice as she wrapped her arms around him. Creed slowly did the same.

Kursed sniffed at her running nose and wiped away a tear...

"_Okay that's it I'm outta here..."_ She said to herself leaving the siblings to themselves.


	8. Chapter VII

**(Short chapter all but it dose answer a lot of questions...no action though sorry...Thx for the support as always...R&R...and most of all enjoy..."**

"Song of the day"

"Hey man nice shot" By Filter

* * *

**-Chapter VII-**

"Xenass outer aerospace"

After the two had shared what tears they had, Creed decided that he should introduce his sister to Kursed. They found the blue vixen in the kitchen sitting alone with what appeared to be a glass of water, Creed knew better. It seemed like every time she began to feel something this turned out to be her destination, drinking, Creed didn't like seeing Kursed when she was drunk, she got a tad on the emotional side, and sometimes a little more flirtatious than Creed really cared for...liquor was most definitely not the best of her friends...

"Hey Kursed..." Creed called to her, "...I thought we had an agreement...no booze."

Kursed sniffled a bit, "Sorry Creed...couldn't help it." Kursed held up a square clear bottle, "Anyone?"

"Thanks..." Lia said sitting down.

"I think we can all use a drink...especially me with damn bullet hole in my leg..." Creed said taking his own seat, "...it's funny, this one in my gut doesn't even hurt."

Kursed scoffed, "You're lucky the damn thing didn't hit anything important..." Kursed said, and after a short pause looked to Creed, "So you gonna introduce us or not?"

Creed was so occupied with his drink he'd forgotten, "Oh right...Kursed this is Lia. Lia this is my partner Kursed."

Lia blushed a bit, "She's really pretty Creed..." The two vulpine stopped drinking and turned to Lia, "...What you aren't..."

"NO!!" They answered together.

"I said partner. How did you get us being together out of that?"

Kursed chuckled to herself they were definitely brother and sister, in fact the only reason she was even drinking is because of the revived memories of her own brother that died on Cerinia...

Lia gave up on the subject, "Well forget that...Creed what happened to you. Why didn't you ever come back?"

"You think I didn't want to?" Creed replied, "But I knew that if I came back dad would just make a scene and you'd have to watch that whole scene all over again. You'd been through enough crap with me and dad already so I just did what he wanted and backed off..."

Lia turned her eyes to her drink, "I waited every day for you to come home. I kept telling everyone that my big brother would come back a big hero..but then the months went by and after you were gone for a bit over a year I made the mistake of asking dad why you didn't come back...That was when he told me that you were shot down during the war. I still can't remember when I stopped crying."

"Well he war right, I was shot down. Well kind of..." Creed said, "My friend Johnny had an enemy heat seeker riding his afterburners. My weapons system had locked up for some reason...I had to save him he had a wife and kids to go home to. My life was already ruined so, I waited for him to pass me and slammed my fighter into the missile..." Creed explained taking a drink, "...luckily my fighter wasn't completely destroyed. I blacked out when my fighter hit the surface, I was lucky enough that we were inside the atmosphere when I got hit. The first time I woke up after the impact I was on a stretcher, I tried to reach out see if Johnny was okay, but neither of my arms worked. My left arm was completely destroyed beyond repair, and I lost the right one in the crash..." Creed paused for a bit, Kursed had never heard this story herself...

"So those arms are from the military?" The blue vixen said.

"Pretty much..." Creed replied, "...when I woke up the second time...according to Johnny, who refused to leave my bedside, I'd been out for a grand total of two weeks. I'd been in and out of surgery five times for my right arms, and six for the left. That was when our when our captain came in and offered me the chance to get my arms back. Like anyone my age back then I accepted, and had Johnny sign the paperwork for me."

"How bad was the surgery?" Lia asked.

"Unfortunately it was even more painful then loosing the arms to begin with. See what they didn't tell me was that to have these neural links put in they had to connect them to every nerve that originally went to the arm, and because they needed to know that they were doing this properly I had to be conscious for the operation. I only blacked out once from shock. When I woke up again, I was in recover, and miraculously enough, I could feel my left arm again. A day or so later and they did the other arm. They ran tests, did surveys to my reflexes, and found that I had a full range of motion, and my reflexes had increased dramatically along with my strength...which was to be expected since they are fully pneumatic."

"Were they hard to get used to?" Lia asked.

"Not really..." Creed turned his metallic hand over palm side up on the table, "...see my palm and fingers are covered with tiny impressions, kinda look like fingerprints. Those are called Sensory Nodes..." Lia raised an eyebrow in confusion, "I had the same look on my face when they told me. So let me put it this way. They're artificial nerve endings. Helps to gage how much force I'm putting into something."

"Still breaks things by accident sometimes though." Kursed laughed.

"Now...what were you doing in a place like that?" Creed asked having clearly finished his story.

Lia looked at him, "Despite everything dad tried...I still followed your step and tried to join the military. I guess I thought in some way being a pilot would give me back a bit of the time I lost with you...but I failed out of the academy. When I came back here dad pushed me aside the same way he did you...then mom got sick. He tried to stop me from seeing her but, having his ass kicked by his own little girl kinda softened him up a bit. After mom died, he pretty much just stopped caring, completely gave up on living." Lia explained with a melancholic tone, "He lived for another year, by that time I was sixteen. I didn't have anywhere to go...but then I met someone, my friend Mika. She introduced me to her friend that owns a bar on the colony. Soon enough he offered to let me join a faction that he led, a resistance faction called 'Strife'..."

"Faction against what?" Kursed asked.

"Certain parts of the government that are fucking around with things that shouldn't be fucked with. Our main target though has been Omni-corp..."

"What's so bad about a ship manufacturing company like them?" Kursed asked.

"They deal in a lot more than simple ship parts; biological, viral, and chemical weapons, assault droids, illegal weapons, and most of all genetic experimentation. Recently we've been trying to get a hold of something that Taniks took from one of the ships down there on Xenass..."

"What was it you were looking for?" Creed asked.

"We don't know. All I can tell you is that it was called 'Silver Fox'...Look I don't know if you've been to the colony at all but, there's some freaky shit going on up there. Everyone thinks that the Crazy 8s are a gang but their wrong. The only true members are the underlings, Taniks was hired to keep his part of Omni's operations secret. He faked all the thefts of the ships on Xenass, I personally watched the crew to one of the ships leave the ship to Taniks in the atmosphere..."

"How the hell did you get that close to them?"

Lia smiled, "I started dating one of the 8s higher ups to get information. He had an...accident a few weeks back. That little group down there you laid into weren't all bad people. Though I should thank you for putting that rock through Trevor's head...he liked to get handsy...but Charlie, that echidna was trying to protect me...he really didn't deserve that..."

Creed went silent, now he did regret killing them all...

"But still...if you don't mind I could use a ride to the colony."

Kursed looked to Creed who nodded, "According to her the only way to get the shipment back and get paid in by going there in the first place."

* * *

**-Aboard the Dark Star-**

Fox, was a bit worried when he woke that morning, his new partner was nowhere to be seen or found aboard the ship. His worry was replaced as he came across the armory on his way out of the ship. Taped to the door of the small room near the docking bay was a small note in James's handwriting...

"Okay..." Fox said reading the not out loud to himself, "Scar, Hope you aren't angry but I couldn't sleep so I left this note here at 5 o'clock. Took a small blaster, not sure what kind,got a knife too..." Fox smiled a bit as he crumbled up the note, "Kid's got guts...I'll give him that."

Fox went about what he'd said he'd do while James was doing his part. The computer on a newer ship like this one needed to be configured before it could do most of it's primary functions, especially vocally answering or registering commands. He was on the bridge for hours and he found it stiflingly hot as the AC was apparently directly set to the computer's main program. He was incredibly happy once the command prompter for the computer's configuration asked him to input core room temperature...he set it for a normal degree of 58 degrees as he liked his atmosphere a bit colder than most; the system allowed him to set the refuel warning for the ship which he set at 48 percent or lower, he set the ship's daytime lights to a lighter shade not quite dusk but duller than the brightness they were normally set at, then he finally set up the computer's default voice,and as the computer's serial number possessed the letters M, I, and A...he simply saved himself the time and typed in the name Mia...

"Mia?..." Fox asked experimentally after setting up the system.

"Yes captain..." A rather soothing female voice came from the PA system.

Well that proved it worked, "Give me a full system diagnostic on the ship."

Everything was silent for a few moments, "Room temperature 65 degrees and dropping, current fuel cell level at 93.251 percent, there is a slight electrical short in sector f-3, line 7 rewiring at this time is not necessary, com systems running at 98.39 percent, life support systems running at 99.99 percent, and your arwing's fuel cells are currently at 46.22 percent...refueling recommended."

Fox did as he had been suggested and headed for the docking bay to change the fuel cells in his arwing, it was just as he finished with the small fighter that his communicator kicked on...

"Scar I'm in..."

* * *

**-Kursed's ship: Xenass colony docking station-**

Kursed's ship reached the dock in almost no time. When they departed from the ship she examined her surroundings she'd never seen a place in such a state, but then her eye was drawn to the star ship docked beside hers. She tapped Creed's shoulder who turned to face the ship as well...

Kursed walked over and slid her paw over the Dark Star's hull, "Now this is a ship...owner must has excellent taste."

"Kursed I'll admit that it is a very nice ship, but, we have somewhere to be right now."

"Yeah yeah...I just hope someday we can replace this old piece of shit with something like that." She said as she waked back to the group who all made their way toward the bar to visit Lia's friends, and hopefully get to the bottom of whatever it was Taniks was covering up...and whatever Silver Fox was...


	9. Chapter VIII

**-Chapter VIII-**

"Inside the Dark Star"

Fox got his gear together as quickly as he could, he wasn't sure why but, James had told him to be on the ready. He was already wearing his new uniform...though he seriously doubted that a tank top and camo jeans could be called a uniform. He checked over his gear a few times, though he admitted that those two animals from before had caught him off guard he wasn't about to allow that to happen again. His bruised ribs luckily didn't give him too much grief. As he made his way out of the Dark Star's docking bay he noticed the ship that had been docked beside his...he wasn't sure weather or not he'd seen it before. Then again when he had seen it on the Great Fox it was from behind so this was understandable. He made his way down the street double checking his gear; Pk-101 (small rifle), two assault rifles, his blaster, a standard pistol, his lucky combat knife of course, and quite a few grenades, not to mention his new Sonic Disruptor Rifle. To anyone looking at him he looked like some sort of fucked up commando. It was as he rounded the corner to the bar that he dove behind a nearby dumpster and pulled out his Pk-101; Pk-101s were older models of a more standard sniper rifle, though it did fire bullets it used the Rail Gun theory instead of forced propulsion with gun powder, it fired it's bullets by using very powerful, very small, electromagnets, this made the weapon as silent as any sniper rifle could hope to be...

Fox peered through the scope of the weapon while laying down and facing the rifle toward the bar from under the dumpster. There were thugs everywhere in the nearby alleys, and it looked like they were being as quiet as possible to take the people inside by surprise. Fox had to think fast. As he scoped out the area he could clearly see Nex through one of the bar's windows mixing a drink, and as Nex began to put the bottle away a silent shot from Fox's rifle caused the bottle to burst in his hand. The bar instantly burst into commotion causing the thugs around the place to barge in. Fox took a few more shots but, after he'd killed five or so the weapon made the sound of arching electricity...

"FUCK!!" Fox yelled throwing it to the ground, "Of all the times for the coil to go out!""

Fox pulled his assault rifle and rushed toward the bar which was now filled with the sound of gunfire and screaming, the place had erupted into an all out war. Fox didn't want to rush through the front door in fear of getting caught in a deadly crossfire. As he noticed an opened window on the second floor Fox quickly leaped onto the roof of a nearby car then onto the awning above the door to the bar...he quickly dove through the opened window whipping his gun in every direction until he noticed that he was in a bathroom. He then heard a frightened voice from behind him. He quickly turned to see one of the call girls wrapped in a towel and crouched down behind the tub, the young pink furred bunny was scared half to death...

She'd helped Fox clean up downstairs before, "Roxy?"

At the sound of his voice she quickly glanced at him, "Scar? What the hell's going on?" She asked crawling out to join him.

Fox reached behind him and handed her his blaster, "You know how to use this?..." He asked.

She gave him a disappointed look, "Look at the shit-hole I grew up in..."

He had to admit she had a point, "Good...get something on and head out the window...you can hide inside my ship it's a big black one you can't miss it."

"What about you?" Roxy asked.

"I gotta go help everyone else..." Fox replied, "...don't worry about me I'll be fine. Just go!"

Roxy hesitated for a moment but, she finally got the point and grabbed her things not bothering to put anything on before rushing out the window. Fox rushed into the hall to find two of the gang's thugs but they were riddled with shots before they could react to his presence. He lowered and shook his head as he saw what they were shooting at, the other girls hadn't been as lucky as Roxy, they lay dead at the end of the hall. Fox sucked in his rage at the sight, he couldn't afford to go over the deep end now. He cautiously made his way to the stairs and headed into the bar itself; the scene was brutal but nothing less than what he was told to expect the patrons were on the far side of the room all hiding behind overturned tables and such, blaster holes and blood riddled the wooden surfaces of the tables and counter, bodies lay everywhere, some riddled with blaster and bullet wounds while others seemed to have died far more excruciating deaths. The members of the 8s were just below him, but, he dared not open fire on them or they'd turn their attention to him, and these quarters were too small to use a grenade. "Fuck it!" He lowly shouted to himself pulling two grenades from his belt.

Fox barreled down the stairs and hooked left toward the bar counter, as the gunfire went off behind him nipping at his heels Fox made a leap toward the bar while turning and lobbing the grenades into the small crowd of gang members. Unfortunately Fox had held them a moment too long and the blast went off before he could safely land behind the bar; the shock wave from the blast slammed his body limply into Nex's hidden door which collapsed under the impact. Fox stood up slowly shaking his head, his back was killing him and for good reason. He pulled out his Disruptor Rifle only to find it had be smashed between him and the wall...

"GOD DAMN IT TO HELL!!" He shouted throwing the destroyed weapon to the ground, "I DIDN"T EVEN GET TO USE THIS DAMN THING!!"

He sighed as he turned his attention to the room, "Nex you in here?"

Fox's face was quickly covered by three blasters, "WHOA!!" He exclaimed, "Maybe I was better off in the war zone."

His expression went from cynical to serious as he saw her face, Krystal, Creed, and Nex were all still aiming at hi s face when Nex finally threw down his blaster and headed over to Fox...

"SCAR!?" Nex yelled, "God am I glad to see you. This is Kursed, Creed,and Lia...they were here to talk about Taniks apparently Kursed and Creed were hired to kill him too."

Fox looked over to the three as Krystal gave him an odd look, _"God don't let them recognize me..."_He pleaded.

"I guess we owe you one...but we didn't ask for your help."

Fox was happy for that but she still had a venom to her voice, "What help?" He laughed, "I like this bar..."

Creed looked his way and smiled a bit, "Well thank you nonetheless Scar...my sister's not much of a fighter." He said walking over and shaking the vulpine's paw. Fox was a bit shocked when Creed smiled and winked at him...

He knew it was Fox, then again unlike Krystal he had been there to treat the wound on his face and was well aware of the scar it left behind, "No problem but...I think it's safe to say that my little friend may have been caught. That could be why they attacked this place..." Fox said keeping his voice slightly masked, "...I'm headed out to find that prick Taniks I got a good feed on where he is from the last time James called me...but I could use a few spare clips of 5.56 rounds for this thing." He finished holding up his assault rifle.

Nex tossed him two clips, "Take these two with you they can help."

Fox looked over Krystal and Creed, "Sorry...but I work alone."

Nex tried to stop him but Fox barreled out of the room and his gunfire joined the hail as he vanished. Krystal and Creed stood by for a moment until Krystal's face contorted with anger as she pulled her blaster...

"What the fuck are you waiting for Creed!! That son of a bitch is gonna beat us to the punch!" Krystal yelled rushing out into the fray.

Creed turned to Lia and gave her his blaster while pulling his assault rifle, "You stay here with Nex. I gotta help her or the stupid bitch is gonna get herself killed."

Krystal or Kursed, rushed out into the slaughter that the explosions had caused firing at anything that shot at her before she broke through what was left of the bar's old fashion saloon doors. She wasn't about to let this stranger take her mark, no matter how cute she thought he was...but there was already something about him that she couldn't stand. As she made her way into the street she looked around until she could see the smallest figure of the fox in the foreground headed for another sector of the city, she gave chase just in time for Creed to burst from the door which flew from it's hinges slamming into a nearby car, he rolled his eyes as he noticed she was running after Fox and quickly followed. He wasn't sure where they were going but, it was quite some time before they stopped running hear what appeared to be an old hotel. The building was rickety and dilapidated; what was left of it's old door barely hung from it's top hinge, the aged and weathered paint on the old style stone building was peeling away to reveal the rust colored brick beneath. Creed cast his eyes several stories up to see Fox rushing up what was left of an old fire escape...Krystal obviously hadn't noticed him as she was searching the alley they were standing in. It wasn't long before she cast her eyes skyward and began to make her way up the fire escape herself.

At the top of the building Kursed caught a glimpse of him as the fox made a running leap from the building, she rushed over to see that he had leaped to another nearby building and crashed through a sixth story window. Fox was in a bit of pain he'd seen Krystal fallowing him and made this slight detour so that he could throw her off his trail. He didn't want her getting into any situation in which she could get hurt...even it they were no longer together he still loved her and would never lead her into danger. He shook his head and dusted the shards of broken glass from his body and pulled a shard out of his left arm where it had lodged itself between his shoulder and elbow. He was lucky he always carried his old bandanna on him as a good luck charm, which he pulled from his back pocket and tied around the wound to stop the bleeding. Fox made a hasty exit of the building making sure he wasn't seen before rushing off in the proper direction. He was traveling for some time before he finally found the building that James's last message had come from. It was some sort of old warehouse for a store of some kind, there were signs that read keep out and unsafe structure strewn about the place...yellow caution tape was draped across the door which had clearly been torn away. There were several small vehicles sitting outside the structure...Fox smiled to himself before he made his way to one of the graffiti covered hover cycles; he tied one of his grenades to the underside of the vehicle and tied a small string from the pin to the ground, he did the same thing with the other three, and rigged several of the hover cars to explode in another manner. He made his way cautiously to the warehouse's door and inside found that the place was blocked off from the front so that nobody could see inside. Fox managed to find a safe place to hide as soon as he was inside... "I'd give anything for a cloaking device right now." He whispered to himself.

Fox peered over the large covered crates that he used as shelter, there was hardly anyone here; two wolves, a few raccoons, a fox, and as far as he could tell one chameleon. The place was set up like some sort of den. There were places to sit everywhere, a television that was of a pretty decent size, a refrigerator...and in the far back a single room behind a wooden door with a glass window. As Fox looked on he could see two silhouettes taking turns punching something...

_"Twenty to one says that's James...poor kid."_ Fox thought to himself. _"What the hell is in this crate?"_

Fox lifted the top of the wooden box closest too him and slapped his muzzle shut ducking back behind the crate...as soon as he was sure that he was clear and nobody had hear the squeaking sound his voice made, Fox stood up and lifted the top again. It was full of weapons, blasters, SMGs, assault rifles, sniper rifles...you name it it was there...

_"HeHeHe...happy birthday Fox..." _Fox thought to himself as he reached into the crate and pulled out a second assault rifle loading it with one of his clips.

It was as Fox sat the weapons down for a moment that he noticed writing on one of the boxes...

_"Omni-corp R&D...Ship parts? Why ship parts?"_ Fox mentally asked himself.

As he slowly opened the crate Fox's eyes doubled in size; inside was a streamlined object roughly the length of his old sonic rifle, it's body was large and round, covered in small hoses, there was an impression near the end of the object...As he looked onto the object in awe he noticed a hard disk and a document...

_"Lets see..."_ He thought beginning to read to himself, _"Crystalic Fusion Array...shipment number 132, April 7th...9:30am...destination, Xenass? Why would Omni send their new stuff here? And what the hell is this anyway? Some sort of super compact engine? Better take __it anyhow...never know when something from Omni will come in handy."_

Fox removed the object and strapped it to his back, making sure to take the hard disk as well. He picked up his two assault rifles and began to move as quietly as he could toward the office like room in the back, hoping that they hadn't beaten James to death by then. He made his way through the shadows, taking cover behind whatever objects he could. Soon enough he found himself laying down behind a large black sofa, as some animal had just plopped down and turned on the TV. Fox started to peer over the back of the couch but just as he got a look at what appeared to be the back of a raccoon's head the animal called out to someone...

"YO!!JAY-JAY! MARQEZ WON THAT FIGHT! SANDERS GOT HIS ASS KNOCKED OUT IN THE SECOND ROUND! FIFTY BUCKS BITCH!!"

"Yea bite me ya lucky fuck!!" Another voice called from across the room.

Fox looked over the sofa again only this time he noticed that there wasn't anyone around; he quickly reached around the raccoon's head taking clamping his muzzle shut and using it for leverage as he twisted the animal's neck sharply to one side resulting in a small fit of twitches before the raccoon went limp, and his head fell to his chest, his broken neck no longer able to support it. Fox fixed the raccoon to look like he was sleeping and hurried back behind the sofa as he noticed a set of footsteps coming his direction. As he did a wolf made his way over to the raccoon and tossed a small wad of bills on his lap...

"Man I hope TJ doesn't come back to find ya like this..." The wolf started to wander off before he notice that his friend wasn't breathing.

He instantly took the raccoon by the vest and started shaking him, "Teak? TEAK! This shit ain't funny ma...(urmph)..."

His words were cut off as Fox, in an incredibly quick and lithe move jolted over the back of the sofa taking the wolf by the muzzle and dragging him over the sofa. The wolf's eyes doubled in size as he felt the cold blade of Fox's knife bite into his neck and slide across his throat. The wolf tried his hardest to fight but, as his attempted breaths began to flood his lungs with blood his flailing ceased until the only sound left was of the wolf attempting to breath through the knew hole in his neck. Fox lay the wolf on the ground and made sure to take the credits off the raccoon's lap before heading again to the door...and as he made it to the door he threw it open and ducked inside only to throw up his rifles aiming at the James's face who had a rather large blaster pointed at him...

"Huh...Taniks." Fox said as the two burly looking wolves stepped to the side.

The ape smiled, "Surprised? I put out a false photo to confuse morons like you but, you all found me here anyhow...even Kursed is here after me."

Fox removed a small device from his pocket after dropping his guns and pressed a small button with a happy grin as Taniks slapped a paw over his ear, "It's anchored now. See I wasn't so sure I could trust you at first...and pops always said 'follow your instincts'. Apparently he was right. There's enough C-12 in that thing to split your skull like a melon." Fox smiled even wider, "I tell ya my old mechanic could think up some pretty twisted shit when he was in a fucked up mood."

This time Taniks smiled, "Boys if he pushes that button, blow the fucker's head off."

The wolves both snapped to attention pointing what appeared to be shotguns at him, Fox laid his hands to his side for a moment, "Well I can see we should work something out here..." Fox held out a paw with the detonator in it "...Kursed and Creed are on their way here, so they would kill you and me if given the chance. I say you can concentrate on them and I'll just take this thing on my back and leave the detonator with you. That way I get compensated and you get you life."

"I'm afraid I can't do that..." Fox twitched his arm as if he were to press the button that could cause Tanik's head to burst, "WAIT! Alright...boys put 'em away. Just give me the detonator and you can go."

"You really think I'm stupid enough to just give this to you?..." Fox replied, "I'm insulted. You three walk out the door and make for the front of this place...once I'm in the clear then you can have it."

"Fine..."

Fox stepped to one side allowing the three to walk out the door and picked up his assault rifles strapping one to his back and then making his way out of the room. Two of the other animals in the room tried at one time to stop Fox but were waved away by Taniks, and soon the three were standing in the open outside. As they stood facing each other Fox told them to throw their weapons, which they quickly did...

"Now before I give you this who do you work for?"

Taniks smiled, "Omni...that's all you're getting."

"Really...this thing on my back isn't important is it?"

"No...it's nothing that can't be replaced, though the corporation will most likely have you killed to get it back."

"Fine by me catch..." Fox replied tossing Taniks the detonator.

As soon as the device was in the ape's paw the two wolves reached for something under their black jackets, but where cut down by a spray of death from Fox's assault rifles, "That was very un-smart."

As Fox started to walk away he could hear Taniks yell for the others that were inside...but he went silent as he saw a familiar looking device in Fox's paw which was held up by the side of his head. "SON OF A..." Tanik's curse was cut short by a loud but dull pop. Fox had switched the detonator with another in his pocket, he didn't even bother to look back on the decapitated ape, but as he rad down the street he could hear the sound of several well timed explosions...they tried to follow Fox but his surprise dealt with them. Fox rushed back through town toward the bar where his payment waited, for a short while he had hoped that his feelings about the kid were wrong, it would have been nice to have a partner again, but the ape had crossed him...and that was something the new Fox...that Scar had no intention of dealing with...

* * *

**(I wanted to get this done a bit sooner but things came up and well I got stuck...if there are any confusing points let me know and I'll clear it up in chapter 9 ...R&R and tanks for the support as always - The footsteps in the darkness)  
**


	10. Chapter IX

**(AN/ Sorry all...I kinda wanted to get this out there sooner but, there were quite a few errors that I needed to fix...in the chapter and my computer's hard drive...anyhow thanks as always and hope you enjoy the chapter. R&R...let me know if I screwed something up or just wether or not the chap was any good, thax for all the support as always...)**

**-Chapter IX-**

"Xenass colony docking station"

Nex had met Fox where they had agreed right next to his ship, the lizard didn't seem to interested with the device strapped to the fox's back but only seemed to care whether or not Taniks was dead. When he heard the good news Nex quickly paid Fox and left the area allowing the mercenary to get back to his ship so that he could go off in the search of another job...but, before boarding his own ship Fox pulled a small note from his pocket and tucked it into the door of Krystal's ship's docking bay. As he boarded the Dark Star Fox found Roxy standing near his arwing...

"I told you you'd be safe here didn't I?" He asked setting the heavy device on a bench near the small fighter.

The bunny only nodded she was holding her stomach...

"Something wrong?" Fox asked.

"I've never shot anyone before." She whispered.

"Oh that...don't worry about it...that always happens the first time you kill someone. Unfortunately killing is one of those things that get easier the more you do it..." Fox replied, "You just keep the blaster, but I have to go so..." He said opening the docking bay door.

"I-I...I want to go with you. You may not like to admit it but, even a hunter like you could use a helping hand now and again...and I am willing to learn. If you'll teach me."

Her big blue eyes were so much like Krystal's back when they were dating, those eyes could have convinced him to pull the stars out of the heavens and lace them around Krystal's neck. He'd have done anything for her then...even now possibly if she ever asked it of him, but there was not likely to be much of a chance of that...he did like company and, though she was still kind of young, he did trust her to a certain extent...the two had talked somewhat when they had cleaned up the bar after hours. The bar had also nearly been completely destroyed, she had not discernible skills that she was aware of...not many safe places for work, especially not for an attractive young thing like herself; she did have a rather nice body, though nothing compared to that of Fox's blue furred dream girl, she was a bit more chesty, and her hair was a bit longer...

"What's the real reason you want to come?"

Roxy sighed, "Anything is a better job than the one I had..."

Fox couldn't say no...though he claimed to be a changed person, he still cared about pretty much everyone, "Fine...but, you start to slow me down and I'll drop you off at the first place possible...got it?"

Roxy smiled and nodded quickly, "Good...I guess you can have Ja...Tanik's room since he's a bit out of his head at the moment. But first thing's first; you need some decent clothes, that skirt and tank top isn't proper for any type of mercenary."

Luckily Taniks had stalked up the room Fox had given him with clothing, he was really trying to sell the part...or trying to blow off what precious little credits he'd earned working at the bar for the time he did. Either way however it did give Roxy something to wear for the moment, even if it was all a bit too big on her, a belt was all she really needed to keep herself from being exposed at all times. She at times wondered why Nex refused to allow her to do the jobs she usually took, he most of the time would only allow her to work in the bar serving drinks...then again having an attractive young thing like her working as a drink girl called for more drinks than usual sometimes. Thinking about Nex's calls against her being one of the bar's call girls made her think about the other girls...they were prostitutes but, they were her friends...

She paused as she looked into the bathroom mirror where she'd gone to change, "Scar? You still in the room?"

"I could leave..."

"No...I just needed to know..."

Fox cut into her sentence, "In case it was what you were going to ask...No, the other girls were all killed, none of them made it out. You were apparently the only one who had enough time to hide." Fox surprised himself, there was almost no emotion at all to his words, he never did do too well in solitude.

After a few more minutes Roxy came out of the bathroom, Fox was surprised...he found her to be much prettier without her face being hidden under any make-up, he never really saw why Krystal had liked it so much either. The way Fox had always though on the matter was: "If it isn't broke don't fix it..." and from what he saw now she had no reason to cover her face with anything the same way he felt Krystal never needed the stuff...

Roxy wiped a few tears from her cheek, "They may have been whores but...they didn't deserve that...they treated me like a kid sister. I think it was even them that made Nex force me to work in the bar downstairs to keep me away from the same work they did. Just because they had sex for money didn't make them bad people did it?" Fox was a bit surprised, by her attire and appearance he automatically assumed she was working with the others.

Fox sighed managing to keep his composure before his new crew member, "Honestly kid...I'm the wrong person to be asking moral questions to...I've done some pretty bad stuff, to someone who really didn't deserve it...but it dose sound like they were trying to keep you safe." Fox lowered his head at the thought of her again but managed to look past it somehow, "My mom once told me that _'Even in the darkest heart you can find a little light'_ you just need to know where to look." He'd have come up with something better than that but, he really didn't want the bunny to become too emotionally dependent on him. The last thing he needed right now was to have to sort though her emotional dilemmas as well as his own problems.

"It's funny ya know?" Roxy said walking to the end of the bed to put her boots on, "When a girl grows up in the kind of slums I did...you swear to yourself that you'd never consider doing those sorts of things for money...but after what Nex and the girls did for me,...I was ready to do anything to repay them."

"Really?" Fox said standing and walking to the door, "And what was it they gave you?"

"A home..." She answered lightly.

Fox knew how she felt, he'd lost his entire family to Andross...not to mention Pepper's death which had taken an incredible toll on the poor fox...he'd managed to survive the Aparoids and the Angalar...only to be taken out by common cancer from all his years smoking those damn cigars. Now as he looked back on everything on his way to the bridge, Fox realized that he was right back at square one; no friends, no family...and worst of all...no Krystal...

* * *

**-Meanwhile at the Crazy 8's hideout-**

Krystal and Creed arrived at the warehouse where Fox had been; at first they hid from sight on their way to the hideout's doors the scene was brutal; several vehicles were on fire, one had already burnt out, there was a powerful smell of cooked flesh and fur in the air, two wolves were dead, a bullet had pierced ones eye and another had torn a hole in the others neck. A short distance before them was the headless body of a Venomian, his death must have been rather brutal as there were small fragments of his head and it's contents littering the ground. As they approached Krystal lifted her foot to find out what she'd just stepped in...

"Well that's lovely..." She said scraping her foot across the ground in an attempt to wipe the crushed remains of an eye off of the sole of her boot.

"Poor fucker lost his mind..." Creed said tapping the body with his foot, "...looks like this was done with an explosive. And these two..." He said walking over to the wolves noticing they were both still holding half drawn weapons, "That Scar's pretty damn good at this. Shot this one in the eye, this one in the neck, and somehow found the time to blow this piece of shit's head off."

As he said this Kursed stepped toward the building's doors Creed stood up and began to work his way to her side only to hear the sound of a gunshot, Krystal had clearly seen it coming as she dove to one side and quickly planted herself up against the side of the building. Another shot rang out and Creed made an odd looking dive behind one of the burning vehicles...

"Kursed!! You okay over there?!" He yelled out.

"I'm fine..." She called back, "...that bullet hit me though. It's not serious but it still hurts like hell! If I move from this spot that fucker'll have me right in his fire zone!"

Creed thought for a moment then looked at a hover cycle that wasn't flaming anymore, "Get his attention somehow!"

Kursed had a deep trust with Creed, something he'd earned time and time again..._You'd best know what the fuck you're doing..._She thought to herself as she rushed from her cover zigging and zagging in random directions. Several times the gunshots sounded off, but only resulted in a short spray of sparks at the blue vixen's heels. The the lights from the shots were all Creed needed to know that this marksman was on the building's second floor his position being a fractured window covered by a plank of wood. With all the strength he could get out of his arms Creed sunk his metallic fingers into the hover cycle in front of him, after hoisting it over his head he took a sharp step forward and launched the bike at the window. The gunfire stopped before the bike ever hit, the last thing the sniper had ever expected was to have a hover bike thrown at him. Kursed made her way angrily toward Creed as the bike made an extremely loud crash through the window...

"YOU THINK YOU COULD HAVE WAITED ANY FUCKING LONGER?!" She yelled at him kicking him in the shin.

"OW!! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Creed replied stepping back.

"YOU..." Kursed staggered a bit in mid sentence placing a paw on her forehead, "...whoa." As she said this she staggered forward falling into Creed's arms.

It was as he lay her on her back he noticed that the shot she'd taken earlier had hit her thigh, all that running and dodging must have been done on adrenalin alone, "That display back there made it bleed out pretty quickly..." As Kursed looked on his thumb and forefinger produced rather long metal claws, it was funny she knew they were there but he never used them in a fight, "...the bullet's still in there,..it didn't hit an artery or anything so this should be fine."

"Don't explain...just get the fucking thing out of my leg."

"I don't have any feeling in the claws so...you need to tell me when I hit the bullet... 'kay?"

Kursed nodded and Creed took a breath, Kursed wrapped a tight grip around his other arm when the scalpel like blades sunk into the wound. He felt around until Kursed let out a yelp of pain which let him know that he'd just pushed on the projectile. The makeshift surgeon gripped the bullet between the claws and pulled sharply, issuing a scream out of the vixen as the bullet was torn free. He flicked the bloody chunk of metal away and pulled off his shirt and tied it tightly around the wound. He helped Kursed to her feet who used the large fox as a sort of crutch. She'd been hit but, for the most part Creed was sure the sniper was the only one left...

"I think it's safe to say Scar beat us to Taniks...though I can't tell which was him...the specs weren't specific..."

"That horny fucker always leaves out the important stuff." Kursed growled, she had some words for their contractor,

As they entered the building they saw the hover bike laying on top of a fox who's arms and chest were crushed beneath him, Kursed broke into laughter...

"What?" Creed asked.

"On...the...the bright side..." She managed to say in between laughs, "...he caught it."

She was right as Creed started his own laughter, his position implied that he'd dropped his rifle and attempted to catch the bike but, was pushed over the rail on the catwalk above them crushing him to death as they both hit the floor, "You gotta give him credit for trying...though a smarter person would have simply dove out of the way of a quarter ton of flying metal...he had to try stopping it."

After a quick laugh the two looked around the storehouse luckily finding the missing weapons. Almost all of the crates had never been opened accept for two; one full of rifles and such missing one, and the other being completely empty...

"Hey Kursed come take a look at this...!" Creed called her across the room to a hidden area.

When she arrived she found that he was examining a large white capsule like pod bigger than any of the crates, with a glass face, she wiped a paw over the frost built up on the glass, "It's a cold stasis pod...from...Omni...Why the fuck would they have this in with a shipment of weapons?"

"I don't know but...I think our contractor is working for them. Why else would he send us here?" Creed implied, "He knew we'd find out about the shipment one way or another if he knew there was a resistance group here giving Omni's men a hard time."

"Maybe we should pay my admirer a little visit." Kursed said.

"First lets get paid for returning these weapons."

Kursed cast a mischievous grin at him, "Why? Black market'll pay more."

* * *

**-Xenass's deep outer aerospace-**

The Dark Star was well out of the colony's range when they were cleared for hyperspace entry, Fox had informed this new crew member that they were headed to Kew...mainly to get her some decent clothes that didn't look ridiculously big on her, as soon as they entered hyperspace Fox stood up from his seat...

"Well I'd better go fix that short before it gets any worse." Fox said stretching his back, "Still curious as to why such a new ship would actually have a short in the wiring so soon."

"Why's that so odd?" Roxy asked.

"You rarely get shorts in electrical wiring...it's usually a blown relay, you know something along that line. This is a new ship so the wiring shouldn't be going out like this."

Fox found the sector that the ship's computer had pointed out. He loosened a panel in the floor and jumped into the catacombs beneath, Roxy simply stayed up top as she had no clue when it came to electronics. As she sat there waiting Roxy began to think about her friends again, but not of their deaths rather all the things they had all done for her as she grew up...

"Say Scar, you have any family?"

Fox sighed he'd rather not get into this, "Not of the living variety..." His voice echoed from the hole in the floor, "...mom died in a car accident, dad was a mercenary and got shot down...almost had a little brother though."

"What happened?"

There was the sound of falling metal, "OW! Son of a bitch that hurt..." Fox yelped, "My dad was a pretty important person, had a lot of enemies...It just so happened that one day he took a cab to work, my mom got in the car to have her check up with her doctor about my unborn brother. I was at school when it happened, they said it was a bomb hooked to dad's car's ignition. Dad was never the same again, even retired but, the mercenary life has a funny way of keeping it's hold on you...a few years later he took on a mission, never saw him again..."

Roxy was a bit sorry for asking, "I-I-I'm sorry..."

"Forget about it...just don't bring it up again..."

There was a moment of silence...

"I see our problem...it was just a short after all...bizarre luck there."

It didn't take long to replace the faulty wiring before fox crawled back out of the hole in the floor, it was late night by now, and he showed Roxy to the training room, she'd be spending a lot of time here, She decided to stay in that room even after Fox informed her that he was going to bed; she really did want to learn..._Maybe..._Fox thought to himself walking through the halls_...she could be worth training._

His thoughts as he walked into his room didn't change; it used to be that he couldn't even enter his own room without thinking of the blue furred ghost of his past. He'd finally taken Peppy's advice and let her go, and though she was no longer his single minded obsession she was still there, lingering in the back of his mind, waiting for something to bring the memory back to him. As he removed his shirt however his ears perked up and he froze in place. Something wasn't right about his room and his hand instinctively went to the blaster holstered at his thigh. Roxy suddenly burst through the door about to say something only to have Fox slap his paw over her mouth...

"Shhh..." He hissed pulling his weapon from it's holster.

He moved with a cat like stealth, as he began to examine the room until he was by one of the room's corners where he rose the blaster to eye level, as if pointing it at an unseen enemy...

"I don't know who you are...but you've got to the count of three to turn off that cloaking device...1..."

Almost instantly the color faded from a small area into a vulpine a bit shorter than Fox; the strange fox had strangely colored fur, silverish in a sort, a patch of pure white fur scaled from his muzzle down to his inner thighs, which caused Roxy to look away as he was bare of clothing, he had long platinum colored hair, and the lightest of baby blue eyes, he wore an odd pair of military dog tags around his neck, and as Fox examined this intruder he noticed that there was a strange mark on the fox's left arm, a O circled by a diagonal ring...the Omni corp logo; on his left breast was another black mark shaped like a bar code...

Fox kept his aim on the fox's face, "Say something?"

The fox's paws were shaking as was his innocent sounding voice, "What...am...I?"


	11. Chapter X

**-Chapter X-**

"The Dark Star, Hyperspace"

Fox stood off with the clearly insane fox only long enough for him to see an almost fearful look in the poor thing's eyes...Fox still didn't move from his spot...

"Scar...I don't think he wants to hurt us." Roxy said.

"I'm not taking that chance..." Fox said keeping his attention on the intruder, "How did you get on this ship?"

The Fox simply looked over to the pink bunny...

"How did you get into my room?"

Again there was no answer, the silver furred intruder simply looked to an opened vent shaft over on the nearby wall...Fox still didn't move his weapon from it's place in the poor frightened animal's face. The silver fox seemed to be breathing rapidly until his eyes finally rolled to the back of his head and he hit the metal floor with a rough thud. Fox walked over an placed his fingers on the fox's neck...

"What happened?" Roxy asked.

"Hyperventilated..." Fox said turning him over as the fox had fallen on his face, "Hand me a pair of pants from that dresser over there..." He said pointing to a metal dresser built into the wall by the door to his room, "I'd really rather not have this guy's junk waving around."

She came back and handed Fox a pair of black sweatpants...and as Fox slid them onto the silver fox he got a closer look at the tattoo on his left arm, "What the fuck?" Fox said pulling the now only half nude fox's arm to a better viewing position, "Think you can explain why this boy's got the Omni corporate logo branded to his arm?" He then turned his attention to the tags around the fox's neck closely examining them, "N-13...Silver Fox program...project id: 154-U13-0002. That's weird they aren't military, hell they don't even list a name. And what's the deal with the bar code on his chest?"

Roxy stepped forward kneeling next to fox, "Better yet, what kind of question was that?"

"I don't know...why wouldn't he know what he is?" He asked more to himself than anything else, "I don't like the feel of this one little bit...Help me get him into my bed, I'll sleep somewhere else tonight. We can find out what to do with him before then."

After the two set the silver furred fox in the bed they left the room, Roxy finally went to bed, but Fox simply sat in his captain's chair on the bridge examining the new fox's tags that he'd removed. Could this have been the person that Taniks had asked about before he died? Why did he have Omni's corporate logo on his arm? And what the fuck was 'Silver Fox'...?

"Mia..." He suddenly said still rubbing the small metal tags together.

"Yes captain."

"Link up with Omni corporation's central archive and see if you can reference anything toward something called 'The Silver Fox Program'...if not there search everywhere else.."

There was silence for almost an hour before Mia's voice rang back through the room, "The archives listed is encrypted with powerful defenses, attempting to break through their firewall will almost certainly result in a system destroying virus..."

"Don't go there then...you're a bit too useful to risk on something like that."

"Other reports were discovered through alternate sources but...there can be no positive connection between the rumors listed and Omni." Mia replied.

"What reports?"

After saying this the holographic imager came on-line listing an old newspaper article...

"Cure found for lethal Diphyria Virus...results in the cancellation of the Silver Fox Project, termination of the project passed by one Alexander C. Pepper...as the newly appointed general found the project to be unconventional and exceedingly dangerous. The general's petition was frowned upon by the lead scientist behind the project; Doctor Syler J. Maclare..." Fox thought to himself for a moment, "...Maclare...Maclare...Mia run a profile on that name Syler Maclare."

Again the room fell silent, "Syler Johnathan Maclare...born July 27th, 3206...current status unknown, rumored to be deceased. Height 5foot 3 and one half inches, Weight 156pounds. Youngest person to ever graduate Katina University. August 6th, 3224...at age 19 Maclare is instated into the R&D division of the Cornerian military Biotechnology department. After working for thirteen years under his mentor Andross T. Marius he was fired when the Silver Fox Project was cut short by The General, he is yet to be heard from hereafter as with his mentor he was banished from Corneria for further experiments outside of the military compound using homeless animals as test subjects."

"Andross..."Fox growled, the name set his blood to boil, "Well keep digging and see what you can find."

* * *

**-Somewhere between Xenass and Kew-**

Kursed limped down the hall toward the ship's kitchen, she detested being injured especially her legs...she despised not being able to walk, in her eyes the act of limping around made her feel and look weak. She move quite a bit more slowly to keep the stitches from tearing. When she finally got to the kitchen she found that Lia was already there tipping a small glass around with her finger...

"WOW...2 am what are you doing up?" Krystal asked walking to the cooking area.

The cream furred vixen shook her head, "I've only been in a ship once before...as I'm sure Creed told you, our father didn't much care for flying. Why are you up?"

"Rolled over in my sleep and hit my leg..." Krystal answered sitting at the table now with a blue bottle which she took a small drink from. By now she noticed that Lia was studying her, "I got something on my face?"

"No..." Lia quickly replied, "...but you're real name isn't Kursed is it?"

Krystal smiled and simply shook her head taking another drink of whatever was in the bottle.

"I didn't think so...who's parents would have willingly named their child something like Kursed?"

She saw no harm in letting the young one know who she was traveling with,after all she was her only friend's sister, "Actually they named me Krystal...but I haven't gone by that name in years."

"So that's who you are..." Lia said sitting up in her chair, "...Fox McCloud's old girlfriend."

Krystal snorted at the mention of his name...

"Oh right...the whole falling out thing...sorry I brought that up."

"It's not your fault, you were only curious...and pretty damned perceptive at that..."

Lia smiled a little bit, "Did you love him?"

Krystal chuckled at the question, "Of course I loved him..." Krystal's eyes widened as she noticed the smile on Lia's face, "...No we never did that. Well we almost did once..."

"Why'd you stop him...?" Lia smiled.

"I'd really rather we got off the subject..."

"Sorry...I didn't realize we were on such a touch subject...but they always say it's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all right?"

Krystal sighed deeply, "Try it some time."

After talking for so long the two headed out of the kitchen and toward the bridge,. Krystal actually enjoyed talking with her whether or not the subject had 'him' in it and by the time they had gotten to the bridge Krystal had told the young vixen several stories about her time with the Star Fox team. Lia burst into laughter as they walked onto the bridge...

"Wahahahahait a...a minute..." Lia said stopping to catch her breath from the laughter, "...You mean to tell me that THE Falco Lombardi, got into a food fight with the team's mechanic, and by the time you and Fox were able to break them up they'd wasted half the ship's food stock? Did you get hit by anything?"

Krystal shook her head, "Nope...Fox took a coconut to the head though...Falco always had one helluva throwing wing. Enough girl talk though, I want to find out what was in that stasis tank...something's not right with this entire scene...Why would there be a stasis tank along with so many weapons?"

"How are we going to do that?" Lia asked.

Krystal sat in her captain's seat, "First we find out where Chase is...he sent me and Creed to Xenass, and I'm pretty damn sure he's well aware of whatever it was in that tank."

"How do we get him to talk though?"

Krystal sprouted a wicked grin, "Your brother and I have our ways of getting information out of someone...your brother's new arms can cause a lot of pain without much effort, and eventually after hearing the sound of your own bones snapping over and over again...you tend to break yourself."

* * *

**-Aboard the Dark Star: Hyperspace-**

Fox woke in the late morning, attempting to stretch out a massive kink in his neck and back from falling asleep in his captain's seat. As he stood her realized that he needed to check on his intruder. He lazily made his way through the ship's halls until he came to his room, who's door opened for his presence...the bed was empty. He ran into the bathroom...empty too...

"Hmm...not here."

Just then Roxy's voice came through the PA system, "Scar...You awake yet?"

"Yes Roxy I'm awake."

"Then get your ass to the kitchen...your shiny furred buddy from last night's gonna eat everything on the damn ship."

Fox went over everything he'd noticed about the young fox; confusion, amnesia, violently shaking, and finally insane hunger, "Sounds like he just came out of the freezer...just let him eat. He may be a bit more stable after the hunger's gone...I hope." He finished saying the last two words to himself.

Fox quickly got dressed, nothing special was needed, just a white tee-shirt and a pair of knee length denim shorts. He then made his way to the kitchen, he sort of laughed a bit when he saw the young fox; he had a plate of foot in front of him piled several inches high, some of it threatening to spill over onto the table. The pink furred bunny that looked a bit disturbed by what appeared to be the most atrocious table manners she'd ever seen walked slowly over to Fox...

"He's been at it like that for almost an hour."

"Good...then he should be just fine soon enough..." Fox replied taking a seat opposite of the silver furred youth, "You got a name kid?"

The fox stopped eating with a small bit of something hanging from his muzzle, he simply shook his name, "They never gave me one..." He said before he continued eating.

"What do you mean they?" Roxy asked moving in a bit closer, "Your parents?"

The young boy stopped again and tilted his head to one side, "My what?"

Fox grabbed Roxy by the collar of her shirt and pulled her in close to him, "Amnesia hello...If someone stays in cold stasis for any more than a month, they develop symptoms that were called Cold Fever...memory loss, extreme hunger, violent shaking, confusion, and in some cases severe delusional hallucinations."

"Thank god he doesn't have that last one." She replied lowly.

Fox pulled out the tags and tossed them to the silver kid's end of the table, "Know anything about these? You were wearing them when you passed out."

The bottomless pit stopped and picked up the metal tags and put them back around his neck...

"You think Omni would be able to explain why their logo is on your arm?"

"I...what's an...Om-ni?"

"Forget it just...help yourself and try not to eat everything..." Fox said standing and taking Roxy by the arm and leading her to the door, "Look, I don't think it would be right to drop him off anywhere in this condition...he could get killed. I want you to stay here with him, make sure he doesn't overdo anything, his body is under enough stress right now...and whenever he stops eating, get him to a room. You're going to want him near a bathroom..." Fox finished walking out the door.

"Why is that?!" Roxy shouted to Fox as he walked down the hall.

"Cuz eventually he'll finish thawing out! I don't know how long he's been in cold stasis...but, he hasn't gone to the bathroom in that long!"

As the hours went by Fox found himself quite content to find they had finally arrived at Kew but, for some reason they did not get any clearance and were told they'd have to remain in orbit around the planet until morning. Mia's scans for information on the silver fellow's tags had come back negative...there was nothing, maybe the kid just worked for Omni or something...but, why then had he been in cold stasis? Was the corporation freezing their own personnel now for future uses? The thought of refrigerated employees made Fox laugh out loud...not a very likely scenario but, it was a fun one to think about...but now there was a greater thought on his mind...

"Mia...see what you can find on something called a Crystalic Fusion Array."

"Progressive scan of Lylat archives could take some time captain..."

"Just do it..."

There was a few minutes that left Fox to his own thoughts before Mia's voice came back, "Captain. Incoming call from the surface of Kew, caller is one; Orik Myse."

* * *

**(AN: It's pronounced 'mace'...)**

* * *

"I don't know him so, keep it audio only and patch him through." Fox waited a moment until he could hear some ambient noise, "Hello, mister Myse was it?"

"Yes..." An unfamiliar voice came over the PA system, "Nex referred me to this com channel to have some...err...'work' done."

"Nex huh? You know his last name?"

"Aryson...him and I go way back. Anyhow, there are some things that I could use your help with Mr. Scar."

"Bleh...Don't call me mister...just Scar...it doesn't sound right." Fox said, "Anyhow, if you're still serious about this look for me at the Highland mall tomorrow."

"I'll be there..." This Orik person said before the line cut out.

"As long as this doesn't turn out to be as much of a bother as the last job."

* * *

**-Undisclosed location in Lylat-**

Two darkened figures stand alone in an office each wearing a long white lab coat...

"Are you certain?"

"Yes sir...the entire stock on Xenass is gone..."

"What about the prototype?"

"We don't know sir."

"THEN FIND OUT!! We aren't ready to go through with Project Zeta, not yet...we cannot allow that thing to fall into Cornerian hands. It is a delicate weapon and could easily be turned on us."

"What shall we do then sir?"

"Hmmm...Send for Powalski..."

"What about O'donnell and Caruso?"

"Caruso? That blathering idiot, doesn't have the common sense to do a job this complicated...and O'donnell doesn't trust us. Powalski only cares about the money...so give him a 'large' down payment."

"And when he returns with the weapon sir?"

"Kill him as soon as you have the prototype back in your possession."

"Whatever you say sir...I'll send out the message for Powalski right away."

"Good...we cannot afford to screw this up...Project Zeta is so close to being ready, we just need the prototype back."

One figure was soon left alone looking out a nearby viewing window into the dead of space, "Soon enough Andross...I'll finish what you started."

* * *

**AN: sorry all this chapter came up a bit shorter than intended, but to make it up the next one's gonna be super sized...R&R, and thax fer the support...till next time LATERS!! **


	12. Chapter XI

**_(An awesome saying by an awesome philosopher...)_**

**"Life is weaker than death, and death is weaker than love."**  
As stated by: **Khalil Gibran**

**-Chapter XI-**

"9:18am"

-Kew City-

Fox had dressed the silver furred kid the best he could before the three of them went into the city, unfortunately Fox was a bit more burly than he once was, so most of his clothes didn't fit the amnesia stricken fellow very well..The fox seemed more taken with the sights than his appearance though, it was like the poor vulpine had never seen a city before. He was easily distracted by the tall metal buildings and the masses of animals walking the streets. It wasn't long before the three were one of the massive mall's many stores. Roxy rushed about grabbing this and that while dragging around the poor silver fox, who'd at some point become her personal clothing rack...after a about an hour or so she had gotten her clothes and helped her new silver furred friend pick out some things; Fox had given them both a set amount of credits for clothes, a bit less for the silver one as Fox wasn't sure how long the vulpine was going to be with them, though he really wanted to keep the child like fellow around to find out more about who he was...he'd seen odd colors in fur but, silver was an even odder color that Krystal's lighter blue. As the pink bunny paid for their things she looked around...Scar was nowhere in sight. She walked to the shop's door and found him. The brown-red furred vulpine was talking with an older Venomian, there were massive amounts of gray in his hair and fur...

As Roxy looked on the two talked a bit more before the ape handed the fox a small tan folder...her captain flipped it open and scanned everything inside, at one point lifting the shades from his eyes which widened with surprise...she secretly hoped it was because of the payment they'd receive. Scar soon nodded his head and shook the ape's paw then headed back to the small clothing store where the other two were waiting. Within another hour they were on the Dark Star again, Fox called Roxy into the kitchen, the silver furred guy was already there, he seemed to be growing a bit attached to Fox, he actually seemed to watch Fox very closely with everything he did on the ship...almost like he was trying to learn without bothering anyone. Fox was happy to see Roxy wearing something half decent when she walked into the room; a tight pair of blue jeans, and a white tank top, with a black leather short sleeve vest over it,

"Nice outfit..." Fox said almost sarcastically as she took a seat, "Welcome to your first mission briefing, Roxy." He said tossing the file down in front of her, "Now thankfully this is a relatively easy type of mission, what I did for a time a year or so back. Retrieval...the photo in that folder is what we are looking for..."

As Roxy took out the photo she saw that it was of a artistic remnition of a four legged dragon with it's head tilted back in a sour of howl or something, it almost looked like a rusty mixture of greed and red in color...

"That is known as the Red Jade Pi Yao Dragon..." Fox said sitting across from her, "It was made in 1644 on earth, a planet that no longer exists, made by a race of people that is at the least rumored to be extinct. It was crafted by human hands, which is a very rare thing to find anywhere in Lylat or it's surrounding star systems. For a short while Cornerians made contact with the humans and from that small nowhere planet brought back several different things. This was one of them..." Fox paused to take a drink of water, "The Venomian that you most likely saw me talking to when you were spying on us...was Orik Myse, curator at the Kew City Museum of History. That relic is priceless...got that? Now the group that stole it may be our problem. They are space pirates...rare, but you can find them every now and again around Lylat. Now they only know two things about these pirates; their leader is a wolf named Zeek, and they are highly skilled thieves, pickpockets, and worst of all most pirates are womanizing freaks that won't take a second thought toward taking a woman of any kind and slaving her out...especially one as attractive as yourself..." Though she was getting nervous, Roxy smiled a bit at the compliment, "Now our main problem is with their home of operations...they are located on Titania, one big fucking desert shaped like a planet."

"So then how do we find them?" Roxy asked sliding the folder to the middle of the table where the silver furred fellow began to quickly scan over it, "I don't think it would be very safe to search the planet on foot."

"Actually..." Fox said, "There is a very small moon that orbit's the planet, we are going to set orbital synchronization to that moon and launch a scout probe into Titania's orbit. As soon as it picks up a readable signal we follow the coordinates that it picks up from the ship's engines."

"Great when do we head for Titania?" Roxy asked.

"Twenty minutes ago...we entered hyperspace just before this meeting."

Roxy left the meeting first leaving Fox behind who took out a small snack for him and the mystery vulpine, then signaled for the fox to follow him to the docking bay. Fox walked him through a few things so that the young one could at least help him tune up the arwings when it was needed. He seemed to catch on remarkably fast...

Once the two were done Fox began to head back out of the room, "Umm...Scar?"

Fox quickly turned around, the boy hadn't used his name before, "I-I want to stay with the two of you."

"Look you can't fool me as easily as Roxy..." Fox said, "...you said that 'they' didn't give you a name. You knew what you were talking about too."

The fox turned his eyes away from Fox...

"I'm not saying that you have to tell me anything...seems like you've been thorough enough already. You can stay with us as long as you want but, you're gonna need to earn your fill...you handle a weapon?"

The fox chuckled a bit, "I'm honestly not sure...I wasn't totally lying when I said I can't remember...what memories I do have are all just short flashes...I keep trying to remember who I really am, or what I may be for that matter , but...it just never comes to me..."

"What about a name?" Fox asked.

"I did get one off of those tags you gave me..."

"And..."

"It's kind of stupid but...you two can call me Silver for now."

"Hmm...It dose fit..." Fox shook the silver furred vulpine's paw, "Well then Silver...we should get some rest then...I've got some things to walk you and Roxy through tomorrow."

* * *

**-En Route to Papetoon-**

"5:02pm"

Krystal was a bit annoyed with her leg as she for some reason kept bumping it against things. She finally threw herself into her captain's seat, where Lia walked by patting her on the shoulder...

"You alright?"

Krystal shifted uncomfortably, "Yeah...It's just this fucking leg...Seems like I cant even walk down a hallway without hitting it against something."

"That's rough..." Lia said, "...so where we headed?"

Creed was sitting on the other side of the room going over a computer terminal in front of him, "Papetoon...very small planet...nice place though. It was the last place we got a signal from that asshole Chase, apparently he's been delivering things for the different planets around Lylat while secretly working with Omni...that would give Omni an edge if they try anything stupid, Chase could stop shipments anytime."

"Omni wouldn't start any kind of confrontation." Lia pointed out,

"Don't be so sure..." Krystal said turning her seat to face the two of them, "Think about it...they produce the most sophisticated technology in the galaxy, have scores of workers all around Lylat and the other systems, and can build just about anything. Like you said Lia they aren't an standard organization...they have something big in mind, I just hope we can find out what that is before it's too late..."

"Corneria's armada could take them out though right?" Lia asked.

Creed sighed as he stood from the console in front of him, "Every ship in the Armada was constructed by Omni Corporation...they have all access codes and override codes on file...They could take out the entire Armada without lifting a fucking finger."

Krystal looked out onto the bright rainbow of colors that swirled around the ship's main viewing window, "When the Aparoids attacked, Omni helped create the virus that weakened their queen long enough for us to kill it. Since then all the governments of Lylat have been supplying them with funds to build better crafts, materials, and even access to the planets defense grids in hope that they could improve them..."

"Why not just hand them the entire star system on a platter?" Lia asked sarcastically.

"Maybe that's what we did..." Creed answered walking off of the bridge.

* * *

**-The next morning-**

"11:01am"

Krystal was in no hurry to get up, she knew she'd just hit her leg again. As she lay there she wondered when she'd be rid of the hole in her thigh, until the ship gave a mighty jolt forcing her to skid off the bed landing on the floor with a painful thud forcing a yelp of pain out of her as she'd landed on her injured leg...

"Yo Kursed..." Creed's voice shot through the room from the PA system, "Our Reflux Module went out."

"THANKS FOR THE GOD DAMN WARNING!!" She yelled back.

"You're welcome..." Creed retorted sarcastically, "Anyhow we're there so lets do this thing."

Tears of pain clung to the side of Krystal's face, "I'll be there in a few minutes..."

* * *

**-The Dark Star-**

"11:35am"

Fox had done what he'd said and began training the two inexperienced fighters...though at times Silver's seemed as though he was made to fight, he only needed to see something once to learn how to do it himself...it was bizarre but Fox welcomed not having to show him twice or three times like it was with Roxy. The hours seemed to float by as Fox went over every aspect of what to do in a fight, when, why, and most of all explained the importance of martial arts and why most all Cornerians practiced it in some form or another. Roxy seemed to excel with any type of firearm she could get into her paws. At one point during the day Fox was watching Silver work on a practicing dummy, he was moving and fighting at a skill level almost parallel to that of Falco who only sat a small notch lower than Fox on the means of hand to hand fighting...it didn't seem possible, what had taken Fox years under his father's tutelage to learn had only taken Silver a single day...

"_Something is definitely off about this kid..."_ He thought to himself before noticing that it was almost dinner time.

"OKAY! Break it up..." Fox called out, "That's enough for today...so you two do me a favor and before you take a shower I want you to do a check up on the arwings...there are only two so it shouldn't take too long. By the time you are done with the fighters and your showers dinner should be ready..."

"No problem Scar." Roxy said as she walked by wiping the sweat from her forehead.

It was then that Fox noticed that the silver kid's eyes were fixed on something with his head slightly tilted toward his right shoulder, with a slightly confused look on his face. Fox looked at Silver, then turned his head to follow his gaze...He laughed a bit inwardly. The pink furred rabbit had dropped something and bent over to pick it up perfectly showing her nicely shaped butt through the tight spandex shorts she was wearing, he even found himself staring for a moment before he turned back to Silver with a snide grin on his mug. After Roxy had left the room Silver walked over to Fox...

"You alright kid?" Fox asked noticing that he was breathing a bit hard.

"What was that?"

Fox laughed, "I'm...no anatomy expert...but, I'm pretty sure...yeah, that was Roxy's ass."

"Not that...I know what I was looking at..."

Fox patted him on the back, "That's simple enough, you start sweating, a little nervous around her, short of breath..."

"Yeah that..." Silver answered.

"You're just attracted to her...and with her looks that's perfectly understandable..." It was odd he still seemed confused, "You telling me you don't even know what a simple attraction is? Do you even know what love is?"

Silver thought for a moment, but slowly began to shake his head,...

"Oh shit...um...wow. I,uh don't know how to explain this." Fox said rubbing the back of his neck.

"Do I have to do anything?" Silver cut him off.

Fox smiled, "Well not unless you really want to..."

Silver eventually ignored the incident and headed off to the docking bay while Fox headed to the kitchen. As Fox began to cook something for the three of them he began to think to himself...he liked the silver furred kid, but something about him seemed to become more odd the more Fox learned about him. Not once since he'd known him had Silver showed any type of strong emotion, no laughter, smiling, anger, so far the only real emotion Fox had seen in him was the fear he was full of the first day they'd met...but now all of a sudden he was beginning to feel odd around Roxy, like a teen who's hormones had just kicked in...the more Fox learned about the vulpine the more he found himself vaguely intrigued by him. He eventually gave up thinking about it and turned his mind to something else for a moment...

"Oh right..." He said to himself as he continued cooking, "Mia...how's that scan for info on the Crystalic Fusion thing?"

"Scan nearing completion...remaining time 2hours 10minutes 32seconds."

"How much have you found so far?" Fox asked pulling the lid off a pot.

There was a silence before Mia's voice came back, "726,000 articles found in galactic archive."

Fox froze for a moment until something touched his paw, "AHH!! MOTHER FUCKER!!" He screamed as he'd accidentally grasped the side of a pot instead of the handle, resulting in the smell of burnt fur and flesh, "God that hurts!!" He yelled jamming his hand in the freezer, "Ween out anything that doesn't explain what it is and I'll go through all the rest later."

Silver and Roxy were both done with checking up on the arwings but, the upper half of Silver's body was still under one of the vehicles when they heard Fox scream... "AHH!! MOTHER FUCKER!!" Rung thought the docking bay as if he were standing right outside the door. Roxy laughed out loud taking a rag to her forehead. Like the silver furred one beneath the arwing she was covered in small spots of oil. Silver had been having trouble looking at her since his experience earlier...the feeling actually frightened him. Roxy decided to wait in the room with Silver while he did whatever he was doing under the fighter...

"What are you doing under there?" She finally asked as she noticed he didn't have any tools.

"Learning..." He answered bluntly.

"Just by looking around down there?" She asked, "Wish I could do that."

She began to walk past his outspread legs but, she missed her step and brought her foot down hard to catch herself before she fell...unfortunately her foot came down between his knees right on top of his tail...

"AHHH!!"

_-Clunk- _

"OWWW!!"

The instant shock had caused him to jump as he screamed, causing him to smack his face against the underside of the small spacecraft. Roxy quickly grabbed him by the leg and pulled him out to see him holding a paw over his left eye...

"Are you okay? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

"That really, really hurt..." Silver replied.

Roxy moved his paw away from his face, "Oh man...you're bleeding pretty bad. Can you walk alright?" She asked draping helping him up.

"I think I can walk on my own thanks."

"Good then follow me to the medical bay...that cut might need stitches."

Silver kept the wound covered , the medical bay was on the other side of the ship and would take a few minutes to walk to. Soon Roxy led Silver inside and sat him in a small metal chair, then got out a small tray with several different things including a curved needle and thread. She kept trying to move his paw but, Silver was new to this sort of thing and kept placing his paw back over the wound. Finally Roxy took his paw and held it down on the chair's armrest...

"Hey..." She said forcing him to look her in the eyes, ",it's okay...Trust me." She finished with a light smile.

Silver finally relaxed a bit and rested his paws on his knees. Roxy made it a bit easier on him but telling him what she was doing while she was doing it...though he was more distracted by the fact that his sitting position leveled his face out with a part of her body that made him feel slightly light-headed, and a bit weak in the knees. He didn't even feel the sting when she began to tug at the sensitive flesh around the cut with the small needle as she began to close the still bleeding cut. He was relieved when she finally backed away from him, unfortunately then she poured a clear liquid over the sealed cut...

"OWW!!" He yelled not suspecting the burn, "What the hell was that?!"

"Iodine...it'll help it heal faster."

Silver backed a bit away from her, "I don't care what it dose keep it away from me."

Roxy smiled and ran a paw over his cheek, he reminded her of a small child, "Look I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It was never your fault..." Silver replied, "...but, do me a favor..."

"What?" Roxy asked.

Silver took his tail in his arms stroking it a bit, "Watch your step from now on. I didn't know it hurt that much to have it stepped on."

"You kidding me...mine's so small I don't even notice it until I sit down too hard." Roxy said turning around to show the small, pink, cotton ball of a tail. She found it odd when he didn't laugh...most people did laugh at that joke.

Instead he stood up and thanked her for her help, then headed out the door. Fox already had everything ready for them as they sat down to eat; there was steak, potatoes, and several vegetables. It was a hearty meal, that they all happily sat through...after they had all finished Fox informed the two that they'd be arriving at Titania by morning. Silver was the first to leave the room which brought up a question...

Fox looked to Roxy and tapped his forehead, "Oh...hit his head on the hull of your arwing. I accidentally stomped on his tail while he was under it."

"Even as small as you are...that must have hurt like hell."

"What about your paw...we heard you scream all the way in the docking bay."

"Cooking distraction..."

Roxy simply nodded in acknowledgment, "Which brings up a question...Have you noticed anything...well odd about Silver?"

"You mean that he doesn't seem to know about anything? Or the part where he just studies everything we do? Or the fact that he seems to be learning at an unnatural rate?"

"All of them really. He's like a kit that's completely oblivious to everything around him...just wanting to learn whatever he can about whatever seems to strike his curiosity." Roxy said, "Not only that though...I've barely seen him smile and when he has I think he was just copying us...he doesn't laugh, cry...he can scream pretty loud...but..."

"Yeah I get your point I was thinking the same thing earlier...and I'd be willing to bet the skin off my balls that it has something to do with the reason he was in cold stasis."

"What are we going to do then? I still don't think he's dangerous..." Roxy replied.

"Neither do I. All we can do is keep him with us, and hopefully he'll eventually remember something worth remembering." Fox replied, "You should get to bed...you two went through a lot of training today and we may see some sort of action tomorrow."

"Good Idea..." Roxy said standing up, "I'll see you in the morning Scar."

Fox soon found himself on the bridge going over the data on the Crystalic Fusion Array he'd stolen...

"Energy converter?"

* * *

**-Undisclosed location-**

The two figures in their lab coats welcome a gangly, thin bodied, green skinned, chameleon wearing a black and red flight suit , his shifting eyes seeming to watch the entire room all at once...

"Ah Mister Powalski..."

"Cut the crap...how much?"

The figure snapped his fingers and the other produced an open briefcase full of money, "One million now...and another as soon as the job's done."

"What am I after?"

The lizard snatched a photo from one of their hands, "A very sophisticated weapon prototype...just bring it back here."

Leon looked at the photo and he looked confused, "Unusual design for a weapon..."

"Yours is not to judge or question...just to retrieve it. Our tracking device has been tampered with somehow but our last reading stated that it was headed for Titania."

"Have the money ready." Leon said taking the case and walking out of the room.

The taller to the two figures stood watched the assassin's wolfen pass by the window...Soon enough he would have the prototype and his plans would fall into place...

* * *

**(Not a whole lot of action in this chapter but...the next ones promise to get a bit bloody again...R&R...and hopefully you enjoy reading this as much as I do writing it. Till next time yall.)  
**


	13. Chapter XII

**(Another peice of philosophical gold)**

"They are not dead who live in the hearts they leave behind."  
-Tuscaroran Indian saying-

**(AN: Okay this thing...at least I'd like to think it going pretty good so far. Lots of good reviews so far. Well here's chapter 12 lets kick this pig.)**

**-Chapter XII-**

"12:08am"

-Nanook 2nd largest city on Papetoon-

Kursed waited for Creed and his sister in the docking bay...she'd contacted Chase last night and their conversation led in an odd direction, not his average hits on her, or constant attempts at flattery but rather he came right to the business and told her where to meet him...and it was somewhere the scanners declared that he was not. She was going over her equipment when the other two walked in...

"Did you reach him last night?" Creed asked.

Krystal nodded, "Yeah. The fucker's trying to set us up for something."

"How do you know that?" Lia asked.

"Simple...his signal came from this city but, he clearly asked that we meet him near the asteroid belt near Corneria. I think it's safe to say that Omni is officially on our asses..." The blue furred vixen stated pulling out her blaster and checking it, "...so lets go find our old friend before he realizes that we're not headed where he wants us to be."

Creed looked to Lia, "Kursed if she's going take her with you...I do these things better alone, and I still don't trust this city after what happened last time."

"No problem..." Kursed said with a smirk, "...gotta learn all this from someone with half a brain, right?"

Creed chuckled and rolled his eyes before walking out the door that led to a small gangplank outside, not two minutes before the girls...but as they stepped outside Lia couldn't find her brother anywhere...

"He's really fast for such a big fucker..." Krystal pointed out.

Lia laughed a bit before looking to the huge expanse of tall buildings that stood before them, "Wow...Where do we start looking?"

"Well...he's a persistent prick, he's rich and likes everyone to know it, rather fond of a pretty face...and the son of a bitch is probably surrounded by guards. So we'll start on the north side of town, the wealthy neighborhoods. Another mistake he's made however was asking me out to a club on that side of town called The Astro-Lounge."

Lia smiled, "So...what are we waiting for? Lets get something decent on and go visit this place."

Krystal chuckled to herself, "How about that? You already know rule one of bounty hunting..."

"What's that?"

"Be inconspicuous...We'll look around until night time then we'll come back here and get ready."

* * *

**-Titania Outer Aerospace-**

Fox's new small team had been waiting in orbit around the small red moon called Veyn, waiting for their probe to send them some sort of information, for almost a full day without finding anything. Fox simply sat in his captain's seat wondering. He could have sworn it was a weapon, but, an Energy Converter? They weren't very rare at all, the only difference to this thing was that it used the small energy crystals from Sauria to amplify the energy as it constantly recycled it through the system. It was new technology, and worth millions but, it wasn't that important a discovery...hell Slippy could have built on with his eyes closed if he felt the need...Soon enough however his thoughts were cut off as Roxy walked into the room her now standard uniform...Fox actually liked her leather jacket.

"Well you look like you're ready for..." Fox was cut off by Mia.

"Captain there is a ship breaking into Titania's orbit...Veridion class battle cruiser...not registered for this sector of space."

"Well twist my balls..." Fox said as the Holographic Imager came on-line, "That's them."

As Roxy watched the hologram she saw a massive, bright red colored ship, quite a bit larger than the Great Fox and pretty damn long as well...it was nearly the size of a Fleet ship...

"Wow that thing's enormous." Roxy said with awe.

"Mia get a lock in on their landing area then patch it through to my arwing..." Fox said, "...So you think you can handle a short flight Roxy? I haven't been able to teach Silver how to pilot an arwing yet."

"I'm ready to kick some ass if you are." Fox smiled at the bunny's attitude.

"Wait a second...I'm all for the ass kicking and everything but, there is a slight problem." Fox said getting her attention, "These aren't some low paid idiots impersonating gang members. Space Pirates may be low lives but, they're good at being the criminals they are for a reason. Sure we're bound to find a moron or two in their ranks but...for the most part they do practice their combat skills and their higher ups are usually pretty damn smart. So if we aren't spotted, don't initially assume that they don't know we're there. Well lets go get Silver and get a move on..."

The two split up on the way to the docking bay, Fox stopping by Silver's room. The vulpine joined Fox in the hall; he was dressed in a dark red sleeveless shirt, and a pair of black jeans. The two nodded to each other and they headed off to join Roxy in the docking bay...

"Okay...make sure you've got your gear, chances are we won't be coming back until we get the statue." Fox pointed out.

The two went over their gear...

"I've got everything." Roxy replied.

"Me too." Silver added.

"Alright...Lets get going then." Fox said climbing into the cockpit of his arwing.

Being Fox didn't care for passengers in his arwing he pulled the cockpit shut and looked through the glass to Silver pointing to the other flyer. The Silver furred fox shrugged his shoulders and headed to the other arwing where Roxy was already sitting in the pilot's seat. As soon as Silver was sitting in the smaller passenger seat behind her the cockpit hatch slid shut with an airy hiss...

Roxy looked over her shoulder to Silver, "In advance I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I'm still learning."

Fox's arwing burst from the docking bay, followed by the other...Silver didn't see anything wrong with her flying, she seemed to be doing pretty damned good from what he could see...

"I thought you were still learning." Silver inquired.

"Oh I can fly just fine..." Roxy replied, "...I just can't land worth a shit."

* * *

**-Nanook City-**

**(there is a time difference as you could guess...between Titania and Papetoon)**

"7:33pm"

Krystal and Lia were already dressed like formal ladies for the club; Krystal at the moment wore a long glittery black, strapless dress, it was remarkably tight fitting, and there was a split that scaled up to the mid point of her left hip that allowed her to walk freely, she also wore a pair of black matching heels. She'd removed the ponytail from her hair allowing it to freely cover her right eye as a small bit of it hung over her shoulder. Lia wore a slightly different dress, hers was a bright yet stunning red, hers however only reached down just above her knees, a diamond shaped hole in the dress exposed the white fur of her stomach, it was held over her shoulders by very thin straps, her shorter hair was tied back in a tight ponytail...

"You look really nice in that." Lia said as their cab sped toward the club.

Krystal smiled, "Thanks...Fox used to love this thing. I don't know but, I kinda like it myself."

"You still miss him don't you?"

"Yeah...I always miss him." Krystal remarked with a glum expression.

Lia sighed, "Do you still love him?"

The glamorous blue vixen sighed deeply, "I don't think I'll ever stop loving him. A part of me wants to forgive him but, another part of me just wants to pin him to the floor and beat the fuck out of him."

"Have you even tried talking to him?"

Krystal nodded, "Yeah...about a week or two ago...he'd been blinded in an accident looking for me. The only thing I could do was stand there and answer his questions like an idiot...and send him on his way. I'm just glad he was blind at the moment...if would have started with the apologies all over again I know I would've blown up in his face. I never want to see that look in his eyes again."

Lia changed the subject as she realized that her new friend was getting a bit depressed, "You remember your blaster?" She asked, "We're almost there."

Krystal instantly smiled, "Of course I did...I'm no fucking rookie you know?"

"I didn't mean anything by it." Lia giggled, "So what's this guy look like?"

"A bit shorter than Creed, nowhere near as well built, black feathers, green eyes,...likes to wear flashy outfits, you'll know him when you see him."

The cat in the driver's seat shook his head...

"_Chase has all the luck with the pretty ones..." _

Krystal giggled a bit as his thoughts were rather clearly received by her telepathy. After a bit longer the cab stopped and Krystal paid the feline driver; they stepped out onto a long red carpet, animals stood in a massively long line. Lia found it odd that ever animal they approached moved aside to allow them to pass...but then they got to the front of the line where a Luxonian of all animals was a bouncer on the other side of a velvet rope...

"You ladies on the list?" He asked waving a clipboard around.

"Why yes we are." Krystal said with a flirty smile, "Krystal and Lia..."

He flipped over the pages on the clipboard, "Right...thank you and welcome to The Astro Lounge." The elephant said lifting the rope and allowing the two vixens to walk by.

As they approached the doors Lia leaned toward Krystal, "We weren't on any list."

"Mind over matter..." Krystal replied tapping a finger to her forehead with a slight laugh.

Lia laughed too, "I wish I was telepathic."

Lia was amazed by the sheer volume of the place; there were two floors, the bottom one which they were standing in had a large dance floor which seemed to be separate from the room. A brown furred Venomian served drinks from behind the counter where there were far more bottles of liquor than Nex's bar. The upstairs they couldn't really see but, in front of the stairs was a small red sign by which a large wolf bouncer stood that read: V.I.P lounge. Krystal walked up to the bartender ape while Lia just sat back and watched, it was only a minute or so before she returned...

"He won't be in for at least another half hour."

"Then let's go find a seat." Lia said.

They found a place not far from the door where Krystal sat herself making sure she was facing the door...the drink delivered to her wasn't even alcoholic, she didn't care for drinking much. She lost track of time and the sounds of the festive had no effect on Krystal, though it did have some effect on the younger Lia. A lot of passing males would take glances at the two but never approach them...after about fifteen minutes however a rather nicely dressed white wolf and an equally dressed dark furred canine made their way over to the table. They seemed to hesitate for a moment before the canine approached Krystal...

"Excuse me..." He said trying to gather Krystal's attention, who only eyed him from the corner of the glass she held to her muzzle, "...but would you like to dance miss?"

"Fuck off Romeo." The blue furred bounty hunter mumbled.

The canine's jaw dropped before he walked away to rejoin his friend, who actually made his way over to Lia and stated the same question as his friend had. Lia looked to Krystal as if she were asking for permission or something...

"Just go." Krystal smiled.

Lia left with the wolf while Krystal kept her vigil on the club's front door. She felt a bit sorry for how harsh she'd been with the wolf's friend but, every time she heard something like that come out of a man's mouth, she saw Fox and that always made her blood boil, she wanted her only focus at the time to be on that piece of shit Chase, leading her astray was one thing, false information she could handle...sending her to be killed was something he was about to learn that she wouldn't deal with...she didn't care how much money he had. Soon enough the music died down and Lia walked back to her seat where she sat and happily began to sip at her drink again...

"You know you should lighten up a bit." She said innocently.

Krystal's gaze turned as cold as stone, "What was that?" She half growled.

"Nothing just a suggestion is all..." Lia replied quickly, "...I know being this angry all the time can't be healthy. So what's with the anger?"

"Forget it...burden your friends and soon you won't have any. I'd rather just keep it too myself."

"Oh I already know what you need." Lia replied with a short sided grin, "but you wouldn't want to hear it."

Krystal smiled, "No no...humor me what do I need?"

Lia took a long sip of her drink before smiling again, "You need to get laid."

At first Lia thought she'd crossed some sort of line, but she noticed Krystal lowering her head and shaking it slightly as a silent laugh made her body shake slightly, but soon that built up into a full on laugh. Several animals turned to face them and see what the commotion was. Lia joined the laughter even though she really didn't know why, she just found that Krystal's laugh was incredibly infectious. When she finally found it impossible to laugh anymore Krystal wiped a tear from her eye...

"You know...you're probably right. I'm sorry, I'm just not used to anyone like you being around. You're just like Katt..." Krystal said, "Instead of just thinking about work I should have taken this time to relax a little."

Oddly enough the same canine made his way over to them with the same wolf, he seemed a bit more hesitant to talk this time...

Krystal swallowed her pride, "Look I'm sorry for snapping at you like that...I've been under a lot of stress lately. I don't care for dancing much anymore but...if you two want to join us I can buy you a drink...um..."

"His name's Max..." The wolf said, "and I'm Jake...and thank you, after trying to keep up with Lia a drink sounds great."

Lia moved and sat next to Krystal allowing the two others to sit across from them, soon enough they all had their drinks...

"So..." Jake asked, "What are two ladies as lovely as you doing here alone? Hard to imagine you two being single."

"Hard to believe but, we are." Krystal responded, "So what's with Max...he's looked down since I've seen him."

"He recently joined the military...so they'll be shipping him off to Corneria in a few days..."

"It's not the station that's bothering me..." Max said lightly still not taking his eyes off the table."

Krystal's eyes went white for a moment as she did a rather fast scan of the poor canine's mind, "You're leaving her behind. Hannah right?"

Max couldn't believe his ears, "How did..."

Krystal cut him off raising her palm to signal him to stop, "Don't ask any questions. Just take it from someone that's been there...take her with you."

"But she could get hurt..." Max replied, "...even if she doesn't love me anymore. I'd rather she hated my guts than to watch her get hurt."

"You men are all the same." Krystal said with an angered tone, "You only think about how you'd feel if she got hurt...you aren't even considering what this is doing to her. If you really do lover her then don't be a selfish prick about this and talk to her about it, instead of sitting here at some bar. If she still wants to go with you just take her...you'll feel a lot better trust me. It isn't worth the pain you'll cause her."

Max sat his drink down and smiled, "Y-you're right...I shouldn't be here..." He said standing up, "Look thanks for the concern Jake I gotta go." He said walking toward the door.

"Where the hell are you going?" Jake asked.

"Back to Hannah where I belong?!" Max called back rushing out the club's doors.

After than Jake didn't stay much longer...he thanked Krystal for the drink before leaving the club altogether. They two waited a little longer before Krystal directed Lia's attention to the front door. There was a black feathered avian walking through the door who clearly had no fashion sense at all; he was wearing a bright yellow three piece suit, the coat had wide shoulders and tails, the pants were normal enough accept for the unusually loud color, he also wore a matching hat with a wide, round brim. He made his way to the open bar and ordered something then headed to the V.I.P lounge upstairs. The two waited for a long time, most of the animals that were there for happy hour were already gone, the dance floor was all but empty, and even the bartender seemed tired. Krystal had been keeping an eye on him for some time until she noticed him heading downstairs. She smiled and made a nod to Lia who winked in reply before running over and waiting beside the door. As Krystal knew it would happen, Chase couldn't resist a pretty face and stopped to talk to the young cream furred vixen...as Krystal watched on the two laughed for a brief moment. She used her telepathy to see what was going on...

"Say you wouldn't care to go back to my place would you?" Lia asked in what came off as a rather seductive voice, "I don't have a place around here so I stay in my ship."

The raven smiled before the two walked out the door, Krystal pressed something on what looked like an earring, "Creed?"

"Yeah..." His voice echoed into her ear.

"Get back to the ship..." Krystal said, "...that genius sister or yours is bringing him right to us."

The only thing she could hear after that was what sounded like slight laughter. Krystal pulled off her high heels as soon as she was in a cab on the way back to her ship, she didn't like the idea of leaving Lia alone with that bird, there was no telling how he reacted when he was alone with a woman. She'd learned from her experience with Panther that not all men are as nice as they let on...she wasn't expecting Chase to take her up on her offer but, she played an exceedingly convincing role. Krystal arrived at their ship, something she was glad he'd never seen before since he only gave them missions over the com system, Krystal entered the docking bay only to find the raven's neck in a tight metallic grip, Lia's right breast was exposed from a rip in her dress, and Creed's grip didn't seem to be letting up...

"CREED!!" Krystal yelled out getting his attention, "We need him alive...You can kill the son of a bitch later."

His vision blurred the world back into view...he attempted to stand up but realized he was tied to a chair. The raven smiled when he saw a familiar blue furred face...

"Oh wow...Am I glad to see you I..." He froze as he saw an outraged look on her face.

"You tried to get me killed." Krystal said reaching a knife out to him.

"NO!! It's not what you think." He shouted struggling his face away from the blade which Krystal brought to a stop.

"Then enlighten me...I already know that you work for Omni..."

"They paid me to stop all the weapon shipments to Corneria and Katina...said they had no problem killing me if I didn't go along with it..."

Krystal smiled, "You're making this relatively easy. So what was in the shipment Omni sent to you?" Krystal asked.

"I can't they'll kill me..."

Krystal nodded, "Okay warning time...Creed," She said turning to the metal armed fox, "Start breaking fingers."

Creed simply walked over to the bird and grasped his right thumb in his palm locking his crushing grip around the appendage, the resulting sound was that of walking on broken glass, as the bone was undoubtedly ground into dust. There was no comparison to the volume of the scream the Chase let out, Lia covered her ears. Creed released his finger which didn't look as contorted as it could have rather it was almost perfectly flat now. Krystal waited for the bird to stop screaming before she took a seat in another chair resting her head and arms on the back of it as she sat in the chair in a reversed position...

"Hurts a lot more than a normal break doesn't it? Maybe that will be an incentive for you to start talking."

He remained silent, but then Krystal snapped her fingers and Creed repeated the motion with his index finger next, he still didn't talk, middle finger, nope...ring finger, pinky, hand. Krystal called Creed off as she realized that Chase could loose consciousness any time, though his screams still echoed through the ship and his nerves had given way to full sobs that sent tears down his cheeks...

"Need another persuasion?" Krystal smiled.

"NO!! I don't know what it was...Something about a secret weapon..." Chase managed to say despite the fact that he was crying, "...Silver Fox. I don't know what it is but it sounded bad. One of 'em was out of his mind...kept saying something about Project Zeta and The Recreation. I tell ya the mother fucker was out of his mind."

"What is their plan?"

"I ALREADY TOLD YOU I DON'T FUCKING KNOW!!" Chase screamed, "But...but I do know this...if they wanted all the weapon and supply shipments stopped between Katina and Corneria...Omni can only be trying to do one thing."

"Break apart the Cornerian Alliance. WHY!?" Krystal demanded.

"I told you...I don't FUCKING KNOW!!"

"Fine...that was enough." Krystal said turning to leave the room, "Lia come with me..." She said taking Lia by the arm and leading her out the door, "You don't need to see this..." Krystal said, "...Creed. We can't have him telling them that we know anything...kill him." There was a short moment in which they could hear the bird scream, much louder than before.

A few seconds later Creed came out of the room, his metal arms, and the white fur on his muzzle were drenched in blood, "Good...we'll dump him in space..." Krystal said, "You go get cleaned up...Lia and I'll send a message to Corneria and let them know something's up."

"Wait that's it? Tell them that something's up?" Lia protested.

Krystal turned to face her, "Look I don't know what you've heard but...people on Corneria don't exactly hold me or my word in the highest regard anymore...and your brother and I are bounty hunters, under Cornerian law that makes us criminals. You want your brother and me stuck in prison?" Lia went silent, "Good then lets go."

As the two walked down the halls Lia couldn't help but wonder, "Why start a fight between Katina and Corneria?"

"Isn't it obvious. Omni doesn't want any attention drawn to whatever they're planning...and with the two largest Military groups in Lylat at each other's throats nobody's gonna give two shits what some company is doing."

* * *

**-Undisclosed Location-**

The same two figures...

"Sir...I have word from the labs that Chase's monitor stopped working."

"So he's dead then. Good...he was getting on my nerves."

"We managed to record the last few minutes of conversation he had sir. Seems he angered a group of bounty hunters...they tortured him and killed him."

"Did he talk?"

"Only the small bit he knew...but still."

"Yes I understand...send this small party a gift...since Powalski is occupied at the moment. Why don't we just make these three incredibly popular?I have an idea..."

The two went silent for a moment, "That's brilliant sir...I'll get started right away. Every mercenary in Lylat will be after them now."

The single figure is left alone again who tosses a newspaper on his desk, across the main headline it reads...Fox McCloud Mysterious Disappearance, "You're about to be found again my friend..."

* * *

**(AN: Sorry if this chapter turned out a bit on the dull side...but the next is a definate fight chapter...animals will die. And Chapter 13 will base mainly around Fox's group...R&R...let me hear your opinion...Cya )  
**


	14. Chapter XIII

**-Chapter XIII-**

"Titania's surface"

Silver squinted as he looked over the landscape; the land was dead, nothing but golden burning sand as far as the eye could see, spare a small rock formation in the far distance, the air was dry and hot, he instantly felt sweat begin to gather under his fur, he didn't like this place at all. As he wiped the sweat from his face Roxy handed him a small canteen of water which he drank from before pouring a bit on his face. She didn't really care for the place much herself, Fox didn't like it either but, he was used to being in situations that he didn't really care for...they waited near the arwings for a few minutes before Fox stepped over to them...

"Okay you two..." He said, "Sorry we had to wait but, there was some kind of interference blocking out the scanners. According to Mia their base is in that rock formation on the horizon. Now what do you do if something goes wrong?"

Roxy sighed, "Get to the arwings. Send out a distress signal."

"And you?" Fox asked turning to Silver.

"Follow Roxy and make sure she's safe..."

"Exactly...now lets go scope this place out."

Their trek through the sands was horrible, they were all panting heavily before they covered the ground between the arwings and the pirate base. Space Pirates weren't exactly a band of animals anyone in the modern age had a habit of fucking around with...most of them had a nasty mean streak and the only reason they were a part of the band was because nobody else in the Lylat system could stand them, it was also a means of which to keep from going in and out of prison on a regular basis. The act of piracy had become so bad in recent years that in an allied agreement several decades back, it was registered that all civilians and mercenaries had specific permission, and obligation to kill anyone that was registered as a pirate...this lead to many deaths and many more arrests over a 20 year period before the regiment was retracted. Pirates in these days were a bit harder to find as they often hid in places like this, they were a dying breed but, they were plentiful enough to still cause a problem to the Cornerian Alliance...

As Roxy began to cross the final sand dune leading to the base a paw snatched her by the shoulder pulling her down behind the dune. Fox's paw instantly slapped over her muzzle muffling whatever she was about to say. After a moment of two Silver looked to Fox and nodded.

"What the hell?" Roxy asked in a low tone.

"I almost didn't see 'em...there are at least three guards down there." Fox replied.

Roxy peeked over the dune...there wasn't anything there; the massive pillars of rock that jutted out of the ground, and sand. As she looked on she almost didn't see it...there were footprints in the sand...moving ones. She slid back down to the bottom of the dune...

"Where the fuck did they get cloaking devices?" She asked.

"Hello...they're pirates..." Fox said, "They stole them. Here..."

Fox passed out small silver disc-shaped devices...

"These are the best cloaking devices I could get my hands on. They won't hold a great charge though, so we're gonna have to do this fast. I don't know anything about this place so keep them on and as soon as we're inside find a place to hide until nightfall. Okay lets hold out for a minute...GO!!"

At Fox's word the three turned their devices on, they all barreled toward the rock formation in the distance making sure to fan out far enough not to be picked up by the guards. Fox headed directly for one of the pillars of stone but, as he reached out to brace himself against it he stumbled forward when his paw met no resistance. He looked up from the floor to find that he was in what looked like some sort of hanger, built over what looked like an underground cave of some sort. The massive red ship was only a few yards away from him. He took a look around, there were boxes everywhere, crates, weapons, supplies for the ship, and a number of different types of fighters, as he looked around he found the perfect hiding place; a low hanging vent shaft that kept this hanger from overheating. He didn't have any trouble getting into the vent and climbing around until from the inside of the shaft through a small grate he could see the ship below him...

He waited for at least an hour before he heard something come through on his communicator, "Scar...I'm in a safe place." Roxy's voice whispered.

"Where at?"

"I don't know...but it really smells in here...Someplace under the ship. My cloaking device was going out and I panicked."

"Oh dear god...Roxy...don't panic...but that is a sewage dump." Fox shuddered at the thought, "but at the least nobody will look for you down there."

"Where are you?" She whispered back, she sounded a bit disgusted.

"Vent shaft...it's doesn't smell at all. It's actually nice and cool in here...but I am hungry now...I smell fried chicken, this shaft must be hooked to the kitchen."

"I fucking hate you..." Roxy's voice came back, "...I'm standing knee deep in shit...and you are sitting in a nice, cool air vent, where the only smell you're worried about is fried chicken."

"Did you see Silver down there?'

"No...he was invisible at the moment."

Just at that moment a familiar voice came through the communicator in a light whisper, "Scar? Roxy? You two safe?"

"Yeah we're fine...where are you? The hologram outside is fucking with the GPS on these things."

"I don't know. I went inside that big cave...my cloaking started to go out so I jumped into the nearest dark place. There's small cans and stuff in here wait there's a bag...po-ta-toes. Did we eat something like that last night?"

"Yes Silver sounds like you're in a food pantry find a place to hide in there and we'll come get you as soon as possible. You two keep your communicators on but only talk if you have to...Scar out."

The minutes passed into hours and Fox found himself dozing off, the cool air in the vent was lulling him to sleep as it reminded him of his bedroom on the ship. Soon enough however he began to creep through the vents, he was happy enough when he finally crawled out of the vents...two of the night guards were unconscious by a large stack of crates, one still clutching the neck of a bottle labeled 'Rum'...He sighed and shook his head in shame before walking to the dump under the ship where Roxy had hidden, the smell was horrible, instantly bringing tears to the poor fox's eyes...

"Roxy..." He called quietly, "it's safe to come out...these stupid fucks are drunk off their asses."

A furry pink paw came into view which Fox grabbed pulling her out of the stinkhole, "Wow...you smell horrible." Fox said.

Roxy simply gave him the worst of 'go to hell' looks, "Is Silver out here?"

"No I'm still in this room..." Silver's voice came through her communicator.

Fox patted the poor bunny on the shoulder, she'd clearly been throwing up, "Look around and check to see if it's safe to come out..."

"It's not...there's a guard...he keeps coming back in here every few minutes."

Fox sighed, "Damn it...they aren't all asleep. Your cloaking device should have recharged by now, use it and get the hell out of there."

"Okay..." Silver's voice came back.

Fox and Roxy began to make their way into the base, the insides weren't what you'd expect for a hole in the ground, it was clearly some sort of old munitions dump site, the walls were held tight by metal buttresses, and after going down several hundred yards the thin tunnel spread out into a massive facility, it looked like an underground bee hive, with spiraling catwalks along the edges of the massive underground room. As they began to walk Fox noticed one of a fox coming along the path, he was missing an eye but, he clearly wasn't blind. Quickly taking notice of a nearby door which turned out to be some sort of supply closet Fox quickly took Roxy by the arm and drug her inside with him...The closet was clearly used to store cleaning items, mops, brooms, and an assortment of cleansers that were needed to maintain such a base, a small vent on the door kept the room fresh to allow the chemicals to breath out. As the guard passed by Fox peered through the small metal grate, the fox stopped and sniffed the air for a moment and developed a disgusted look, he examined the bottoms of his boots...then turned to the closet...

"Roxy..." Fox whispered damn near silently, "...your boots."

The refuse from her unfortunate hiding place was caked to her boots and jeans, this was without a doubt what the vulpine smelled. The two inside quickly hid to either side of the door just before it opened a bit, the fox sniffed the vile air again...

"The fuck is that?" He asked himself.

As the fox stepped inside to check, the door slammed shut behind him...there was only a brief moment in which someone could have heard the sound of him flailing around madly as Fox's knife pierced his lung. Soon Fox and Roxy both emerged from the small room, Roxy now wearing the fox's pants and boots, which didn't fit too well, but with the assistance of Fox's belt held up well enough. It was a short time before a set of footsteps approached the two from behind as he and Roxy were hidden behind a stack of crates that smelled of liquor...

"Hey Silver..." Fox said not bothering to turn and look.

The silver furred vulpine faded into clear vision, "Hey Scar...I saw that thing...the red statue from the photo."

"Really? Where?" Roxy asked.

"Back up toward the place I was hiding...what smells like..." He was cut off by the rabbit's paw that closed his muzzle.

"Shut up..." She said noticing that Fox was almost laughing, "You too."

"Lead the way." Fox said standing up.

Silver led them back around toward the top of the tunnel, they hadn't even noticed that it spiraled in both directions. It only took a few minutes for them to reach a large metal door. Where Silver stopped before them pointing at the door...

"There...when I came by here someone came out...the door was open long enough for me too see it. I tried to get back in but it's locked."

Fox took a look at a small panel on the side of the door, "Damn it..."

"What is the combination hard to break?" Roxy asked.

"Standard military panel...anywhere between 4 and 24 digits. Almost impossible to crack." Fox answered, "Luckily it doesn't look like we have to worry about that..." Fox said turning his cloaking device on.

The others followed him in step both seeming to fade from existence before a light brown furred squirrel, wearing a bright red vest with a white undershirt, his brown pants were torn about the knees and shins, his shoes had also seen better days. He marched up to the panel and punched in a short but rapid 15 digit number causing the door to slide open, the four of them entered the room...one entirely oblivious to the other three. The room was filled with assorted treasures; gold, jewels, statues, works of art, everything you could think of that could be worth any sort of money. As Fox noticed the stature they were after was a bit bigger than he expected. Unfortunately as the squirrel found a place to sit down Roxy's cloaking device made an odd sound making her fade back into view...

"Oh...shit." She said lightly as a blaster was pointed at her face.

As she looked on the blaster was knocked out of the squirrel's hand by an unseen force; and with an odd sound a wide red line formed across the animal's neck in an instant forcing the spray of blood to paint a horrible portrait of Fox's face in red which seemed to hang in mid-air. The levitating face of blood turned to face the pink rabbit...

"What the hell happened?" It asked as Fox faded into existence, wiping his knife on his pant leg before sheathing it.\

Roxy handed him her cloaking device, "I don't know...it shorted out or something."

Fox looked it over as Silver faded into sight, "Shit..."

"What? What's wrong?" Roxy asked.

"Oh..." Fox said, "...nothing there's just shit in this thing. Probably what shorted it out."

Fox tossed her his, "Just use mine if something happens..." He said turning toward the statue, "Wow this thing is bigger than it looked."

They made sure that the statue wouldn't hinder any movements before Silver lifted onto his shoulder...it was heavy but not so much that it gave him a mass of discomfort. Fox didn't like how easy this was going he'd always been taught to expect the worst which had oddly not happened yet, he was certain that at some point that one of the bodies would have been discovered. On their way out he kept getting the strangest feeling...almost like a familiar presence. It was as they began to exit the tunnel back into the hanger that Fox stopped them. There was a small platoon of animals...slaughtered one looked as though he'd attempted to make it to a small red switch on the wall that was labeled alarm, a small throwing knife had pierced the back of his skull still sunk into the wall the body laying on the floor in a pool of blood, all of the others seemed to either have a similar knife stuck in vital points of their bodies, or long sweeping gashes that lay their entrails on the floor. Fox had seen this style of killing before, in fact several times...cold, heartless, and without second thought, and worst of all completely silent, not a single shot had been fired...

"Turn on your cloaking devices, put down the statue, and run.." Fox half whispered to his friends.

"What? Why?" Roxy asked.

"Just do it!" He almost yelled.

Silver sat down the statue and the two vanished...

"Don't worry about me I'll take the statue and be right behind you. Just go..."

After Fox could no longer hear their footsteps he pulled out his knife and his blaster...

"I wouldn't so that if I were you..." A familiar but creepy voice echoed through the room, "you wouldn't want the rest of this rabble to wake up."

"Come on out Powalski...or are you still afraid of me." Fox called out.

Fox barely managed to leap out of the way of the three triangular knives that struck the metal ground...the fact that they pierced the floor proved how honed their blades were, "Nice try McCloud..." The lizard's voice echoed back with a light chuckle, "...but not everyone out there goes by your piss poor little code of honor...because in the end even the honorable are still only corpses."

"So I guess Wolf finally grew a brain and kicked your retarded ass off his team?" Fox said hoping to analyze the direction from the lizard's reply.

"Yes...He kept an annoyingly close eye on me after that incident during the war...but no matter the only thing that's important now is what you stole from Omni. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into McCloud...even that moron Falco is smart enough not to fuck with the corporation."

As the reptile kept talking Fox noticed something...there was a shadow cast by a light from the moon outside the building where there was no standing body. The shot from Fox's blaster was swift and precise striking something which then faded into view; the shot had been meant to short out the cloaking device as any powerful contact that would break the surface of the field it surrounded it's user in would knock the thing offline. Fox was never too happy to see Leon...he was known in the Dan'jas system, Lylat, and Krazoa as a hated and skilled assassin who had an impressive track record...

Fox looked to the scowling chameleon, "How do you want to do this lizard lips? Personally I wouldn't mind doing this the old fashioned way. Blaster against a bunch of throwing knives is a bit one sided you know?"

Leon bore a snide grin as he pulled a small pouch from his thigh tossing it aside, "Wolf always respected this about you?" The lizard said pulling out a large knife who's handle wrapped around the animal's knuckles spikes protruding from the guard it formed.

Fox dropped his blaster and readied his own knife...

"Still carrying daddy's knife huh?"

Fox chuckled, "Don't worry about that...you and this knife are about to become very close..."

Fox was rarely the first to make a move in any fight...James had always taught him to be the last to move so that the enemy cannot read what your next move will be, or at least give them very little time to react to it. Leon and Fox began to circle keeping their eyes not on each other but rather the knife in the other's hand. Suddenly the reptile lurched forward with an impressive speed swiping his curved blade at the vulpine's face. Fox made a swift spin to his left pulling him out of harm's way and setting the two back in their original positions circling once again...Leon barely noticed the now red stripe across his side. The angered assassin now lunged at Fox with greater speed, Fox swung his knife but, a well set kick from the lizard sent the blade flying across the room, he then began swinging his blade in an expert fashion, some of the swipes coming close enough to split hairs and tear small holes in Fox's clothes. After dodging several attempts to stab him Fox took the chameleon by the arm whipping the thing freak over his shoulder and into the ground with a heavy impact that jarred the knife from the assassin's grip which Fox quickly kicked away.

Leon spun about striking Fox's ankles with his surprisingly strong tail sending his adversary sprawling to the metal floor, before leaping several feet into the air, Fox managed to roll out of the way in time for Leon's fist to leave a considerable dent in the floor where Fox's head once was. Fox instantly retaliated kicking off of the back of his neck while driving both feet into Leon's face...the lizard however caught his footing and grasped the fox by the tail whipping him into a nearby wooden create like some living flail, causing the create to burst into fragments and splinters. Fox lay on the other side of the wreckage seeing stars, his head had hit something hard on the inside of the create. Leon leaped over the mass of broken wood only to contact solid ground. Leon didn't even have time to react as something heavy was swung into the side of his head knocking him back over the crates. He managed to shake the cobwebs out of his head in time to see Fox tossing a broken rifle aside; Fox was flying half blind...fresh blood pooled from a large cut on his forehead. Leon grasped his bleeding jaw pulling it to one side resulting in a loud crunch as it was set back into it's join, he then proceeded by spitting out a large clot of blood coupled with the fragmented remains of two or three teeth. Fox suddenly leaped onto the creates then quite a height into the air, in an attempt to bring a fight ending axe kick onto the lizard's skull. As he rolled out of the way the sound of Fox's boot on the floor made his ears ring as the floor imprinted around his foot. Leon rolled to his feet and met Fox head on, punches and kicks began to collide with one another...eventual breakthroughs pounding out potential bruises and possible breaks into one another's faces and ribs. After a staggering punch to the face Fox fell back a bit, but recovered launching himself into a bizarre acrobatic, horizontal spin driving his heel across the top of the lizard's head, and as soon as his free foot touched the floor he threw himself backward striking Leon under his chin in the midst of the back flip. Leon staggered back as his vision became a blur...the first kick had laid a massive cut in the chameleon's forehead which was now blinding him with his own blood, he tried to say something but, the second of the kicks had broken his jaw in several places. By now the two were horribly damaged, Fox was still recovering from his impact with the crates as well as the brutal punches and kicks he'd received, while Leon suffered from the impressive display by Fox. Fox, noticing that Leon was on the ropes jolted toward the lizard who made an absurdly quick move to one side. Fox almost fell to the ground in pain as he noticed a small black knife jutting from his side...Leon had at some point picked up James's knife. Fox started to loose consciousness but, forced himself into a stable state of mind and with a new rage sped into his opponent, his next spin kick reversing Leon's left knee in it's socket forcing him to one knee...Fox bared his claws which he sharply drug across the lizard's neck, but didn't give him time to go. Fox bent down and picked up Leon's knife and slammed the blade between the chameleon's eyes quickly snapping the blade off and kicking the dead animal in the side of the head one more time before picking up the statue and as quickly as possible making his way back to the arwings...

* * *

**(AN: Well I got some requests for a hand2hand fight with Fox...seems like someone saw this coming. Well I've been up writing this chapter till 4 o'clock in the morning so...R&R let me know whats up...peace out...and good night...errr...morning. Till next time)  
**


	15. Chapter XIV

**(AN: So this took longer than I was hoping...it was a shorter chapter than some of the others but meh. Enjoy the sappy parts while you can...cuz the shit is about to hit the fan...)**

* * *

**-Chapter XIV-**

**-Kursed's ship Port Sanasan, Papetoon-**

"**5 days after Leon's death"**

"11:26am"

Krystal sat up in her bed, finding little reason to stay awake. It had been decided that after reporting what they knew to the Cornerian Defense Agency or (CDA)...that they lay low for a bit as there would most likely be a deep investigation. Krystal rolled out of her bed and found her way to a warm shower. Her thoughts were everywhere, but mainly on the weapon that Lia had mentioned several times. What was it? She sat there for hours in the relaxing stream before the PA system rang through the room...

"Kursed! Get to the bridge now!" Creed shouted.

"I'm on my way."

Krystal quickly hopped out of the shower and dried off, getting dressed so fast she'd neglected to put on anything under her jeans and tank top before rushing off to the bridge. It sounded like an emergency, which was why she was in a big hurry to the bridge, as soon as she got there Creed thrust a piece of paper at her...

"Take a fucking look at what Lia found while she was at the market this morning."

She read it out loud, "Known and feared bounty hunters Creed and Kursed are hereby wanted by the Cornerian counsel for the unlawful murder of one Fox Jamison McCloud, who's body was recovered in space near Kew. It is yet unknown why this heinous crime was committed, but, the hero of Lylat will be heavily missed. He has been given the honor of a military burial and in such will be treated as a general in the ceremony...his funereal will be held at the Cornerian National Park. Which the Counsel has hereafter renamed the McCloud Memorial Park in the honor of Fox and his father James McCloud who had died some years ago. Friends and fans of the respected vulpine will gather for their final farewells on April 23rd in one week...A reward for the two criminals responsible for his death is set at well over 1 million credits each." Even though she felt she would she didn't cry, rather she threw the paper to the ground, "That can't be true...we saw him..."

"I know he's still alive..." Creed said, "...that's the fucking point. Who set us up?"

"I don't know..." Krystal replied, "...but they claim there's a body. How is that a set up?"

Creed paced around a bit, "Maybe they killed him just to get us out of the picture...cuz lets face it. Soon as this word got out, we became bigger criminals than Star Wolf has ever been. We need to get the hell out of Lylat..."

"Where to?" Krystal asked.

"Dan'jas...the system doesn't have many connections to Lylat so it would be harder for them to trace us there."

Krystal sighed, she didn't agree with the idea or running away but, what else could she do? "Fine set us a course to Tarros-4...hopefully we can get there before we're discovered."

* * *

**-Kew City Hospital-**

"11:09am"

Fox moaned in pain as he tried to sit up, his right side wouldn't allow it. He had no clue how he'd gotten there, the last thing he remembered was Leon, the pain and blood of the fight. Fox studied his surroundings; his head rung with the incessant beep of a heart monitor, a set of I.Vs kept him from feeling too much pain and kept him fed while he was unconscious for god only knows how long. He didn't mind the chill in the room, in fact he found it rather inviting...the whole place was nice as hospital rooms often were, but nonetheless he hated hospitals and doctors for that matter. He reached for the call button and within a few minutes a nurse was at his door, he couldn't directly make out the animal's face, his vision was slightly blurred from the morphine that kept him from ungodly amounts of pain...but her voice was unforgettable to the vulpine...

"Good to see you're awake. How are you feeling?" The nurse asked in a rather sweet and familiar voice.

Fox shook his head to clear his vision, and as it faded into focus he couldn't believe his eyes, "Katt? Issat you?"

The confused pink feline studied his face hard until he smiled, "Oh my god..." She said covering her mouth, "FOX!!" She yelled throwing herself on her old friend with a tight hug around his neck.

"What the hell are you doing here? And how did I get here?" He asked hugging her back, "God I haven't seen you in years." As he held onto her he was surprised that she was crying, "Hey what's wrong?"

"They said you were dead...it's been all over the paper and the news...they have a body and everything."

Fox pushed Katt back a bit, "What the fuck did you just say?"

"They have a body...your body..."

Fox pulled himself up against the bed's headboard, "No Katt...I'm pretty sure this body is all me. It's Omni...I'm willing to bet anything on it."

"I don't know what you mean, but I can't wait to tell Falco...he hasn't been the same since he heard the news."

"I hear you two got married..."

Katt backed away showing her large belly, "You mean you didn't notice?"

"Holy shit...um...how far..."

Katt chuckled as she rubbed her stomach, "About five months...good thing I work here huh?"

"Look...I'm glad to see you and all...and I would be more than happy to see Falco..."

"...but..." Katt cut in for him.

"Katt I just can't go back to that life...and if I have to face Falco, I think I would..." Fox said, "So I need you to promise me right now that you will wait until I am gone, before you say anything...okay...?"

The feline sighed deeply, "Fine...I'm just happy that you're okay. You're friends have been waiting in the lobby for two days. Doctor Nealson said you were lucky...if that knife had been any longer you'd be dead. How did you get in this situation anyhow?"

"I'll tell you what..." Fox said taking a drink from a nearby glass of water that Katt had sat down, "...bring Roxy and Silver in here and I'll tell you everything so that you can tell Falco when my team's gone."

Katt left the room and within a few minutes, a familiar pink rabbit and silver furred fox walked in...the rabbit greeting him with a hug...

"Okay...first off. How the fuck did I get here?" Fox asked.

Roxy looked to Silver then back to Fox, "When you didn't come back Silver ran back after you. It took me a bit of time to catch up with him...but we got you and the statue back to the arwings. I was able to guide Silver enough for him to fly one of the ships out of orbit but...he sort of messed it up while trying to dock with the Dark Star. We've already been paid for the mission."

"Good...judging from the treatment they have me under I won't be going anywhere, at least until tomorrow..." Fox said, "Roxy, go buy the best fighter you can with what credits we have and get all of the ships taken care of. You're second in command so...my responsibilities are yours until I can get my ass out of this bed..." Fox said turning to face Silver, "And Silver..."

"Yes..." The younger fox replied.

"Thanks for coming back for me."

"You've been helping me..." Silver replied, "...it was the least I could do. Besides Roxy wouldn't stop hitting me until I did."

Fox and Roxy enjoyed a short laugh...even though Silver still seemed to find himself incapable of doing so. Soon Fox's old pink furred friend entered the room carrying a large tray of food. Which she sat on a small table which swung out over Fox's lap...

"Figured you might like a bit of solid food..."

Fox ate the food while introducing the two to his old friend...afterward he began to go over everything that had happened to him since the last time he and Katt had seen each other during the war. Several questions were asked by the fox's new crew, but other than that pretty much nothing interrupted Fox's story. By the time it was all over Katt was sitting at the foot of his hospital bed sorting through everything she'd just heard...

"So...she didn't even care that it was you?"

Fox sighed, "No...in fact she couldn't wait to get rid of me..."

"So you just gave up?"

"Yeah...what else was I supposed to do? She hates my guts Katt...and I don't blame her." Fox replied, "I ruined the best thing that's ever happened to me...I deserve to be alone."

"I'm disappointed in you Fox..." The pink feline said walking toward the door.

"And why's that?"

Katt stopped at the door to look back over her shoulder, "Because you aren't alone...and you never were." She answered before walking out the door.

Her words stuck with him, he had a lot of things to think about, "Look you should go...Roxy don't forget to check on that new fighter. Silver stay with her, you two are a lot safer on the streets here if you're together. I'll get processed out of here and we'll leave in the morning."

Left alone without the ability to get out of bed the only thing for Fox to do was sort through his own thoughts which, thanks to Katt, where mainly focused around Krystal. As he sat there he thought to himself...I should have begged, pleaded, done something to get her to come back...but no...all you could do was sit there like an idiot. Still to fucking proud to admit that you were wrong. Dad...what should I do? His thoughts shifted to his childhood as if his mind were searching for some kind of answer, he found himself looking at a point in his childhood, when he was talking to his father about something he'd wanted so desperately as a child he resorted to getting a part time job...one point of that conversation was something Fox had promised himself he'd never forget, something he was ashamed to admit that up until now he had...

**(start Flashback)**

"_Fox...someday, you'll find something in you life you'll be willing to do anything to call your own...even if it always seems out of reach."_

"_Then what should I do?"_

"_Anything and everything that it takes. Just remember that you never really loose until you give up and stop trying. So promise me that, no matter what, you'll never give up..."_

"_I promise dad..."_

**(end Flashback)**

Fox wiped away a tear, memories of his father always did this to him...especially now, when he realized that like with Krystal he'd broken a promise, something he swore to both of them he'd never do. He still wanted to make things right but, how could he? Krystal wouldn't even stay near him long enough for him to apologize...what was worse yet was the fact that he doubted he'd be able to claim himself to be wrong in front of her. His thoughts threatened to tear him apart inside, maybe he really didn't love her as much as he though...but then why couldn't he forgive himself for hurting her like that. The teary-eyed look of betrayal she'd given him when he left her behind, it tore at his heart endlessly. He never told anyone but every night he saw that face in his dreams. For some unknown reason his memories brought him to the first time she'd ever kissed him...he gave her a folded piece of paper claiming it was a poem the described how much he cared about her but...when she unfolded it there was only a single line across the top of the page...

"_There will never be enough words..."_

"...Never enough. I stayed up for six days...and that was all I could say."

A voice caught him off guard, "That's because there is no way to describe love Fox..." Katt said walking into the room.

"What are you doing here?"

She changed the bag to his I.Vs, "I'm your nurse you idiot." She chuckled.

"Oh right...what were you saying again?"

"Look...I tried to find some sort of description myself...you know self-written vows and all..." Katt said unhooking him from the heart monitor, "...that was when I realized that, there really are no words that can describe it. To be honest, that note you gave Krystal was about the best description I've ever heard. Cuz no matter how many words you find you always find yourself looking for more of them."

Fox looked to his knees, "You think she'll ever forgive me?"

"I'm not sure..." Katt replied sitting at the foot of his bed, "...see it wasn't only the fact that you left her behind, or that you broke a promise, but, I think it had something to do with the fact that before she met you she was alone for so long. And when she found herself in the most need of someone to care...she found you...or rather you found her. Either way you slice it you two needed each other, she needed someone to be there so that she wouldn't feel lonely anymore...and you needed desperately to let James go. The only real question is...how far are you willing to go to get her back?" Katt asked standing up and heading to the door, "We're processing you out. You'll be clear to leave by morning, just try to get some sleep."

That morning Fox and his crew boarded the Dark Star and headed into space...

"So where to?" Roxy asked.

Fox thought for a moment, "Mia...start a search for someone in Lylat, Dan'jas, or Krazoa named Danzig."

A few minutes passed before Mia's voice came through the PA system, "Recent police report on Zentarii Minor has had recent trouble with a feline carrying a golden staff..."

"Plot a course and get us clearance, then get us there..." Fox replied.

"Where are we going Scar?" Roxy asked.

"To find the words."

* * *

**-Undisclosed Location-**

The lab coat wearing figure from before slammed his fists onto his desk...the photos were clear Leon had failed His assistant approached cautiously...

"Sir?..."

"You know what to do..."

"Yes sir I'll contact Sydney right away."

"Good...and what of the others?"

"The clone was created from DNA taken from the Cornerian Medical archive...the recent news has gone swimmingly."

The one at the desk picked up the paper from his desk and laughed insidiously, "Very good...Now that that is set in motion Sydney will return the prototype and we can get this whole incident behind us."

"Sir how much longer until the prototype becomes active?"

"If I knew I'd tell you..." On his computer screen was displayed a profile of Silver, "Number-13 was our first working prototype. If Sydney is unable to bring me the weapon...tell him we only need a small piece to repeat the process. How goes the preparations for project Zeta?"

"Phase 1 is well under way sir...Katina and Corneria's relations are falling rapidly and most contact between the two have ceased altogether. Unfortunately that is as far as we can get without Number-13 or at the least it's DNA...but, if it's defense systems go on-line, well I'm afraid not even Sydney will be capable of retrieving it."

"I am well aware of my own creation's strengths...contact Sydney immediately and inform them that there is no time to spare."

* * *

**AN: Okay sorry if that was a bit sappy but, that's just who I am. Anywho...hope you enjoyed the small change of pace. So remember to R&R, and let me know what you all think...and I'll see you next chapter...Like always thanks for reading and most of all thank you for the support...  
**


	16. Chapter XV

**-Chapter XV-**

"2days later"

**-Port Tarros-**

Unable to pay for a room Krystal's group was forced to sleep aboard their ship...this didn't sit well with the blue vixen at all, she hated being confined. Though this did prove to be the time to start training Lia who, against her brother's wishes, refused to leave the group. Krystal's frustration eventually came out one afternoon. when she was sparring with Creed and got a little too serious landing a rather powerful kick to the side of his head. Although he couldn't remember the last time he'd been hit so hard Creed didn't hold the act against her...he knew she was under a lot of stress...after all she was being framed for Fox McCloud's death...had the largest price ever on her head. Creed didn't care if they were discovered he had to get his friend off the ship before she went mad. Krystal had finished with a shower when there was a knock on her door...

Krystal had just finished putting her underwear on, "What?" She demanded in an annoyed voice.

"Get something on and get your ass out here...I'm taking you off of this ship right now if it fucking kills me before you do..."

Krystal met with Creed and Lia in the docking bay minutes later, "Aren't you worried we could be recognized?"

"A bit..." Creed answered, "but, at the moment I'm a bit more concerned about you. So we're leaving the ship for the day, getting a room with whatever money we have left, and you're going to fuck'n relax like it or not."

"And you're gonna make me?" Krystal demanded.

"If I have to smash this fuck'n door in..." Creed replied tapping on it several times, "...and don't test me cuz you know damn good and well that I can do it."

Krystal slumped herself against the inside of the door, "Look if this is about your face I'm sorry...I didn't mean to kick you so fucking hard okay."

"This has nothing to do with any of that and you fucking know it Krystal..." Creed was loosing his patience, something he'd only seen Krystal accomplish, which showed when he called her by her real name, "Listen...I may be your crew member and you partner but, before all of that I'm your friend. I know you're taking this thing with your old boyfriend kinda hard but,this isn't the way to deal with it. I know how you feel...I've been there..."

"THIS ISN'T ABOUT 'HIM'!" She screamed.

"MY FUCK'N ASS IT ISN'T ABOUT HIM!!" Creed retaliated in a much higher tone, "You get like this every time you hear the fucker's name, and the way it makes you act really fuck'n pisses me off..." Creed let himself calm down, "You're the strongest person I know Krys...but if you can't find a way out of this...Well maybe you just aren't as strong as I thought you were. I'm taking Lia out to get something decent to eat...If you ever feel like crawling out of you're own pity, we'll be at that burger joint down the street."

Krystal leaned her head back against the door and slid down into a sitting position. If they found a body he had to be dead...she only wanted him to be hurt like she was but, she still loved him, she didn't want him to die. She stood up and finished getting dressed after sitting there wiping away a few tears, she didn't want it too...but the thought of him laying in a casket void of any life hurt more than she cared to admit to, and the constant thoughts of him didn't exactly help her mood any.

As soon as she had on a new pair of blue jeans and her favorite red tank top, she began to walk around the empty ship; her footsteps sounded as hollow and empty as her heart felt. After a bit of walking she found herself in the docking bay; the small fighters brought back memories of good times flying with the Star Fox team. She decided that Creed had a point and that she needed to apologize to him...but as the door that led to the small gangplank off the ship slid open something fell to the ground; a mangled envelope that had clearly been caught in the door. She examined it curiously before picking it up and flattening it back out as much as she could before scraping claw across the top and pulling the piece of paper out...the page had a single phrase written on it...

_...Never enough words..._

At first it had no effect on her, but, her fangs clenched tightly together as anger washed over her face; all at once all the lies and broken promises washed over any happy memories she may have had at the time. She was wrong, she was happy that he was gone...now she could do as Creed had suggested and get on with her life. She had no need for him or his half-hearted attempts at apologizing...his false love. She ripped the note into confetti tossing it over her shoulder and took a deep breath as she closed her eyes, it was as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders...She laughed to herself, it didn't hurt anymore...she'd finally gotten over him, he was still in her mind but, only a minor thought lingering in the distance. She could clearly think again...over the years her mind had been so cloudy that at times her Telepathy refused to work all together, where before it had been sometimes hard to turn off. She simply sat there basking in the thoughts that flooded into her mind from the animals outside the ship; the ones on the street, in the shops, in the other ships, even the two mechanics that were at the moment running a check up on her ship both of them sitting on top of it eating their lunch. Having pushed his thoughts aside there were no more violent or angry thoughts flooding her mind, just the tranquility that she had felt long ago, before him. Krystal took a relieved breath before heading out the door and toward the restaurant to join her friends...perhaps now that her mind could focus once again things would finally look up again...

* * *

**-Zentarii Minor Outer Aerospace-**

"Inside the Dark Star"

-2:08pm-

Fox sat by waiting for any type of information on Danzig's location, unfortunately for the last few hours there had been nothing. He made sure that the feline had no escape route, they had probes and scanners set everywhere searching for any ship matching the retro-rebuilt arwing Danzig was reported to have been flying. He spent most of his time on the bridge but, eventually Roxy and Silver entered the room, the pink furred bunny was the first to say what they were both clearly thinking...

"Umm...Scar. Wouldn't we have better results if we went down there looking for him?"

Fox sighed they were right, "Yeah...Silver you come with me. Roxy you stay here, and if you pick him up coming out of the atmosphere make sure Mia gets a lock on where he's headed."

"No problem...just try to keep Silver safe down there."

Fox chuckled a bit, "Right...Silver lets go. Gonna need something warm to wear."

Silver went on ahead of Fox to the docking bay, where he waited...Fox soon entered the docking bay wearing a thick black jacket. It was rather large but didn't seem to bother his movements much...

"You aren't wearing a jacket?" Fox asked, "It is winter on this planet and it can get pretty bad."

Of course thanks to his memory loss Silver had no idea about extreme cold, "No...I'm sure I will be fine."

"Suit yourself..." Fox replied climbing into his arwing, "...well come on."

Silver climbed into the small fighter himself, he found that the passenger seat on this one was, a bit cramped compared to the other one. Fox had the area minimized because of his dislike of co-pilots or backseat flyers as he called them. Silver intently watched Fox's movements as he began to initialize the small ship's systems...Fox noticed that during these times Silver was bizarrely quiet, his eyes jutting from side to side following Fox's movements as if he were studying every movement he made, but this was not the time to think of such things. He had someone to kill, he just hoped that he wasn't so unlucky that Danzig had already fount out how the staff works. The engines of the arwing roared to life, which from the inside of the ship was no more than a powerful vibration. Silver had come to like the feeling that hit him when the vehicle shot out of the docking bay forcing him against the back of his seat...

It wasn't too long before Fox's arwing was safe on the ground inside a nice hanger, and as the two stepped out into the open of the city Silver was stunned. The city was covered in a thick blanket of white that fell lightly from the sky, covering even the massive buildings of the large city in the distance...he bent down and scooped the white stuff into his paw...

"It's pretty...what is this?"

Fox was flabbergasted, "It's snow...you don't know what snow is either?"

"I know what it looks like now..."

"You know something about you really trips me out. Not everyday you find someone that has no idea what snow is."

Silver looked at the melting snow in his paw, "I like it though."

"So you cold yet?" Fox asked changing the subject.

"No...I'm fine."

That was weird Fox was wearing a thermal jacket and he was still a little cold...it was like Silver couldn't even remember how to be cold. Maybe this went a bit further than just Cryo-sickness...as Fox waved down a passing hover cab he turned to Silver...

"Listen after we find this guy...I'm gonna take you to see an old friend of mine. He's pretty smart, might be able to help you with that memory problem."

Silver looked back to him, "I would like that very much..."

"Good but for now get in the taxi."

The driver looked over the seat to his new passengers, "Where to fellas?"

"You hear anything about some nut job on the news carrying a staff?"

The Manx laughed, "Well yeah I heard of him...nobody's stupid enough to go over there. What you bounty hunters or something?"

Fox gave him an affirming look, "Your funereal Mack. Seven state district it is...you'll have to walk from there cuz I ain't driving through that neighborhood."

As the cab sped off Fox caught a look at what looked like a reward poster on the driver's dashboard, "That a reward poster?" He asked.

"Yep...just got reported last week. Apparently someone named Kursed killed Fox McCloud, there's a million credit reward for her and her partner..."

"Are they bad people Scar?" Silver asked.

"No...I don't know what's going on but I know they didn't do this..."

The driver laughed, "You know what...I think I agree with you. I met Fox a long time back, even saw him fight once...take a hell of a lot more than some bounty hunter to take his ass out of the sky."

Fox laughed, "You know...I believe you're one hundred percent correct."

Fox didn't even realize he had fans this far out of Lylat...he felt a bit like telling the cat who exactly he was talking to but that would have gotten a bit awkward. He did however enjoy talking to the driver, it brought back memories of his personal driver back on Corneria, Tomas. Always full of questions about Fox's latest mission or just random idle chatter...Tomas was one of the most friendly people Fox had ever known, then again that was most likely due to the cat's relation to Pepper, just one of his many nephews.

Fox scanned the surroundings as the taxi pulled to a stop; burning buildings, graffiti, a dead animal lay on the sidewalk completely unattended, several old cars were overturned and burning, a nearby building was half destroyed giving him a clear view of the inside of the apartment building's rooms...

"Looks like that psycho went to work on this place again...Oh well he's your problem now." The Manx said pointing down the street, "You just keep walking that way and following the mess...you'll find him. I don't know if it's him of that staff but you're about to have your paws full."

"Don't worry about him anymore...I'll make sure to pull the body back through here."

"Good luck pal." The driver said pulling away.

"Do you think we can handle this?..." Silver asked, "Look what he's done to this place."

Fox chuckled, "Yeah look at what he's done. How much energy do you think this took? That thing has a power supply you know? And I'm willing to bet that he's running a bit low on that staff's energy level."

* * *

**-Tarros-4-**

"2:38pm"

Krystal took her time walking to meet her crew for lunch, she just hoped that they'd still be there, now that she was over Fox she felt like actually finding something fun to do. The streets of the land were just as they should have been, hover cars flew by, most of the drivers headed back to work from lunch, several younger animals were playing basketball in a nearby alley, a cop had someone pinned to the hood of a car cuffing him while still taking the time to smile and nod at Krystal. Soon she found herself near the burger stand Creed had told her about. The place was just a stand with several stools sitting along a long window with a counter with a multicolored awning to keep the sun or other elements off of the customers, she could see her massive friend sitting with his hand on the counter and his head down clearly thinking. She took a seat next to him...

"Thanks Creed...I know I yelled at you back there...I'm sorry, but, I'm over it...I guess the only thing this stubborn bitch needed was for someone to yell back huh?" She smiled elbowing him.

He completely ignored her...

"Oh come on don't be like that...I said I was so--" She cut herself off as she noticed something on his neck.

She pulled the small thing off of him, it was a small tranquilizer dart. She pushed on his shoulder and his arms gave causing him to fall face first on the counter drooling uncontrollably. She started to get up but as she turned around there was a large blaster in her face tipped with a long blade. The wielder of said blaster, a gray furred lupine with a single missing eye; he was dressed in a black sleeveless denim jacket and matching jeans, his hands covered by fingerless black gloves...

"Wolf?"

"That's right Krys..." He answered, next to him a female wolf with snowy fur was holding Lia who's arms were tied behind her back, "...now get up. You three are under arrest for the murder of Fox McCloud."

"You aren't a cop..."

"Yeah...neither is she..." Wolf replied tilting his head toward the she wolf, "...but for a solid mil. Huh, I'd turn in my own mom."

Krystal took a stance that looked like she was ready to fight but something struck her arm, which she quickly reached for pulling back the same type of dart that she found on Creed. Her vision began to fade and her heart raced for a few seconds causing her to breath erratically...

"Good idea Kala..." Wolf said his voice seeming far off, "...it'll bee that much easi..."

That was when everything went black...

* * *

**AN: Well looks like Krys got busted...and Fox is about to have a hell of a fight on his hands. Omni has sent out some new assassin (BTW this Sydney guy is a piece of work). Anywho, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, plenty more on the way...R&R, and thanks like always for the support...**

I am and always will be the footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox


	17. Chapter XVI

**-Chapter XVI-**

"A Ship Somewhere"

-8:43am-

Krystal's vision faded in only to recoil at the intensity of the lights. She found she was in what appeared to be a small cell; the shiny metal bars hummed with the sound of a running current almost daring someone to to try bending them. Creed was knelt down in front of them, small jets of smoke rising from his fur and metal arms...she looked on as he stood up and took two of the bars in his powerful mits. He instantly burst into roars of anger and pain as the surges of energy shot through him. She could already smell burnt flesh and fur, she tried to call out to him several times but, her voice was lost over his screams. After a short few seconds Creed released the bars and stumbled back several feet before falling to one knee...

"HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN SO GOD DAMN STUPID!!" He screamed slamming his fist into the ground which released a small arc of electricity.

"It's okay Creed..." Krystal said as she was forced to prop herself up against a nearby wall, "...we were all dying to get off of that ship. I know how you are in closed in areas..."

After several minutes his fur stopped smoking and Creed stood up and positioned himself next to the bars again, "You know you can't bed Turillium. Why try?" Krystal asked.

"Who said I'm trying to bend 'em?" He replied just before grabbing them again.

Krystal noticed this time that the lights dimmed when he did this, and after his next fit of screams he knelt in place smoking again and reeking of burnt flesh and fur...

"I...figured...if I knock...their power supply offline..." He said moving into a sitting position, "...it could buy us a little time..."

"Why would we need time?" Krystal asked.

"Think about it...18 hours we've been on this ship...we aren't headed anywhere near Corneria. In fact we ain't even moving." Creed said, "I felt us lock into orbit about 4 hours ago...they're just waiting for their pay and our pick up."

"Well there's only one person I could contact for help but..."

"Look we both know he..."

Krystal cut him off, "I know...I know. I'll see what I can do...but it's gonna take some time. Telepathy doesn't work so well over distances. I'll only be able to check nearby areas..."

"I thought you said you couldn't read his mind..." Creed said checking on his sister who still hadn't woken up yet.

"I can't but...communication is another thing. It's a lot easier to do." Krystal said, "Technically he's not even hearing my voice...his mind is just telling him that he is..."

"Well either way get going with that..." Creed said walking over to the bars, "...while I sit here and shock the shit outta myself."

"Don't overexert yourself Creed...take a rest."

Creed looked over his shoulder with a smile, "Sorry...can't give the generator time to power up again."

With that he grabbed the bars again and began screaming and smoking again, while Krystal tried her hardest to find some sort of help...

* * *

**-Zentarii Eighth state district-**

"A few hours ago"

Fox and Silver had been walking through the ruined section of the city for hours following whatever path of death and destruction was there. Fox was appalled...this cat had no relative respect for life, it was all senseless destruction; the ground was uprooted in places, certain things were set ablaze, cars were crushed and burning, and even here entire buildings were lait to waste. After some time the two stopped and Fox began to punch in some keys on his wrist communicator...

"What are you doing?" Silver asked.

"It struck me that I happen to be so stupid that I didn't do a scan on the planet for any unusual energy readings like the one the staff gives off..." Fox replied turning toward his communicator, "Mia do a spectral scan of the entire city and give me a report on any abnormal energy levels..."

"Yes captain..." Mia's voice replied, a minute or so went by, "There is an immense energy signature that is decreasing at an exponential rate located approximately one mile north by northeast of your present location."

"Good tell Roxy we'll be back soon..."

Fox directed Silver and they headed in the direction the ship's computer had pointed out; every black they traveled seemed to get worse and worse. Fox was beginning to get a bad feeling about this whole area, there was no life here at all; there was a nearby fire hydrant that had ruptured spewing water into the air melting the snow beneath the isolated rainfall. A bit farther in the distance Fox could make out a figure standing on a large pile of rubble. Fox told Silver to wait where they were taking shelter behind an overturned truck. Fox made his way toward Danzig with his blaster drawn hoping to catch the feline off guard, but he wasn't so lucky. A blast of red light shot in front of Fox, which struck the side of a nearby car, the vehicle flipped into the air from an explosive impact slamming into a nearby building. This act caused Fox to leap behind the remains of a nearby destroyed wall...

Fox was forced yet again to make a dive for safety as several more shots from the weapon began to deteriorate the wall around him. As he scurried to the next dilapidated structure for cover Fox got off several shots from his blaster, but though each was fired with expert precision the bolts of light were knocked away by the staff's power with ease. This time as Fox took shelter he could hear a familiar sound coming from the staff. He looked trough a destroyed window just in time to see the staff take a white glow just before the feline slammed it's head into the ground sending a tremendously powerful shock wave through the area; the force from which knocked Fox off his feet, who could only roll to cover as the wall came down on top of him. As this happened Silver was gripped by a feeling he'd never had before, he wanted to help but, he was afraid, his paws were trembling but soon everything faded from his mind...

The cat looked down to the rubble he stood on, "Finally I found it..." He said to himself picking up a small tube that looked like carved wood, "It took forever but I've found it..."

Just as he seemed to have what he was searching for the feline was struck by something that sent him flying from his perch, the cat hit the pavement with a thud before sliding several feet. He slowly got to his feet and looked to the spot he was standing it. There was a silver furred vulpine standing there now, and enraged snarl disfiguring his once kind features into something to be feared, his nerves had steadied, and his eyes donned a light green glow, his claws and fangs were bared ready to fight. As Fox finally managed to paw his way back to the surface of the rubble he saw Silver standing there but, his head had taken a lot of damage and he collapsed. Danzig fired a bolt of red energy at the silver fox but, in a most unusual fashion Silver rolled to one side landing on all fours. The cat fired again and again but, this strange fox dashed from side to side gaining ground on him the whole time moving on all four like some kind of wild animal. He lunged at the feline but, his attack was blocked by the staff. Danzig quickly rolled onto his back kicking the feral beast away. Silver slid across the hood of a vehicle, rolling off of his neck he sunk his claws into the metal surface, they dug deep tearing away small coils of metal as his momentum was halted...The cat was caught off guard as the animal wrenched to one side tearing the entire hood free and vaulting it at him like some ungodly projectile, the feline managed to put up a field of blue energy in front of him in time for the make shift weapon to crumble into a mess on impact...the now crumbled mass of metal rebounded at the fox who batted it away with the back of his paw. The feline shot toward with a strangely increased speed swinging the staff overhead, the headpiece met the pavement with a resounding blast that cracked loose the black pavement which uprooted and shot into the air, crumbling to the ground in a short rain of stone. He looked around...the fox was gone. For a moment the feline was concerned until he cast his eyes skyward...

Several stories up on a half destroyed building's wall the fox crouched in a destroyed window sill...Danzig wasted no time, he charged the staff but instead of his normal blast of energy he swung the staff in an arch, the headpiece leaving a trail of red light which shot forward in the shape of a crescent blade. Silver leaped from the window just before the stream of light collided with the building. Oddly enough as Silver landed on the roof of the car he'd landed on before causing the roof to cave in to seat level forcing the windows to explode, there was no sound of the beam hitting the wall as it dissipated. There was a rumbling sound from the wall as it seemed to begin to slide away from itself falling at a downward angle in the direction the attack had come from. Silver was lost in the dust kicked up as the mass of torn metal and glass toppled to the ground. The cat wore a cocky smile for a moment until the dust settled, Silver's form was now standing atop the rubble with the same anger laden look on his face...

"What the fuck are you?!" Danzig demanded firing a bolt from the staff again.

Like the others it failed to hit it's mark, within a second the fox was before him,slashing and tearing at his chest and face with his claws in repeating patterns, the last of which causing the cat's mouth to drop open in a pain filled scream. However the scream never got a chance to leave Danzig's lips as a spear-like paw shot through his mouth and out the back of his head. Fox woke just in time to see this final strike as Silver spun in place whipping the body through the air and slamming it into the ground. The silver furred vulpine seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in as he ripped his paw free of the animal's face...he took a vague look at his blood soaked paw before his body seemed to go limp as he collapsed to the ground. Fox began to dig himself out of the rubble that had fallen on him, he was lucky enough to have found a small place to hide unfortunately, he had somehow broken his thumb which as he now noticed it hurt like hell. He yelped in pain as he set the appendage...he then quickly made his way to Silver's side...

"Yo Silver...hey you alright?" He asked shaking the kid.

Silver's eyes fluttered as he regained consciousness, "What happened?...Did you get the staff?...Where'd the cat go?"

"He's dead, we got the staff. Now lets get the fuck out of here..." Fox said helping Silver to his feet then picking up the staff. He then noticed that the cat was clutching something in his other paw, "...the hell is this?" Fox removed the small wooden looking object from his dead fingers and noticed that not only was it metal there were familiar carvings on it, "Cerinian writing?" He's not too proud to jam the thing into his pocket along with several thousand credits found on the corpse.

He made good on his word and drug the body through the districts before allowing the local authorities to take it off his hands, the two foxes however were gone before the cops could ask any questions...

* * *

**-Holding Cell on Unknown ship-**

"Meanwhile"

Krystal had been at her telepathic search for hours looking for any type of familiar thought pattern, as Creed filled the room with the horrid stench of his slowly melting fur. His progress was slow as he had to take time to recover every so often but, he was getting results as the lights now began to flicker on and off whenever he touched the bars. As he held the bars again and let go Lia made her way to his side. She received a slight shock as she touched his shoulder...

"Creed are you okay?'

Creed took a moment to catch his breath, "They're only stun pulses...I'll be fine as long as I keep letting go. It's not enough to cause any major damage, but I ain't getting out of this without some pretty bad burns."

"What about her?" Lia asked looking to Krystal who sat with her legs crossed and eyes closed.

"Looking for help..."

Creed stood up and took a few breaths before signaling for Lia to stand back; he took one last deep breath before reaching out and gabbing the bars...the room instantly went dark as the lights grew incredibly dim flickering off and on like a strobe light. At some point he had stopped screaming from the charge that coursed through him...his body was slowly over the hours getting used to the electricity. He seemed to hold on longer this time, and soon the lights gave out altogether and Creed fell to his knees then onto his back breathing steadily while trying to catch his breath again. For a moment he thought maybe his plan had been wrong placed but, then the red back-up lights kicked on...a sure sign that the main generator had blown...

"Creed? You alright?" Lia asked.

Creed gave her a metal thumbs-up, "Good thing this ship isn't new or that could've been really difficult..." He replied very unenthusiastically, "It's all on her field now..." He said looking to Krystal, "Now if you don't mind...I think I could use some rest."

He passed out...

"I hope she finds help soon..." Lia said to the unconscious fox as she looked to the entranced blue vixen...

* * *

**-Undisclosed Location-**

One of the lab coat wearing figures rushed into the room...

"SIR!!" She shouted.

"This had better be important..." The other said from behind a desk while setting down a glass of red liquid.

"It is sir. 13's primary defense systems just went on-line..." The female said flipping over some documents on a clipboard.

"So it's finally been activated."

"Yes sir. That's not the odd part though...they were only the primary self-preservation systems. They were only on-line for a matter of minutes but, then their signal simply went back offline."

The one behind the desk took a sip from his glass, "Strange...13's programming had no default shut off. Once on-line they should have stayed on."

"That's not the most of it sir...I have reason to believe that Number 13 is in possession of the key you spoke of..."

The one behind the desk chuckled, "Good...very good, everything is falling perfectly into place. What of Sydney and the coupe against the alliance?"

"Sydney will be here shortly..."

"Good go on..."

"And Phase 1 is carrying out beautifully...all ties between Corneria and Katina have been severed and the assassination in underway sir." The female replied, "...we should hear news on the hit within the week."

"That will be all Doctor Camille...splendid work...and make sure Sydney is sent directly to my office as soon as he arrives. And do try not to anger him...he can be a bit...hard to handle."

* * *

**AN: Well thanks for reading...not much to say this time. So thanx for the support, R&R...and I'll see you next time...  
**


	18. Chapter XVII

**-Chapter XVII-**

"Zentarii outer aerospace"

-11:44pm-

Fox sat in the Dark Star's kitchen...this was his 8th cup of coffee, and he had not found anything about the small cylinder he'd taken from Danzig's body other than the fact that it was most definitely covered with Cerinian symbols some of which matched the ones on his staff. Unfortunately he had no idea how to read Cerinian, Krystal had never taught him...now he had that much more reason to find Krystal. He still sat there yet, trying to piece together what he'd seen Silver do, he had torn Danzig apart, and as far as Fox was aware the boy had never fought before.. Also when it was all over he didn't seem to remember any of it. A bit longer and Roxy entered the room taking a seat across from him, she seemed tired...

"Alright...he's asleep what?"

Fox slowly explained what had happened down on the surface, the rabbit's tired look was replaced by one of intrigue...

"He didn't remember any of it?"

"Exactly...it was odd, I've never seen anyone move that fast. He tore Danzig apart like he was standing still but, when he was sparring with you and me..."

Roxy nodded, "He was afraid to throw any punches at all." She said, "What do you think's going on?"

I don't know..." Fox said taking a sip of his coffee while running a paw over the collapsed staff on the table, "...and I'm not sure we're gonna like it when we find out."

Just then Fox wrenched forward with a paw on his forehead, a voice lingering amidst the pain...

"_Fox is that you?"_

It was Krystal's voice she used to talk to him like this all the time...

"_Krystal?"_

"_Listen there isn't much time to explain. Wolf has me and my crew...and I think he's going to hand us over to Omni..."_

"_Why would O'donnell do that?"_ Fox asked only in his mind.

"_Why else would the greedy son of a bitch do it? Money...I searched his partner's mind. We're in some moon's orbit near Tarros-4."_

"_Dan'jas isn't that far from where I am now I'll be there fast."_

Fox looked to Roxy for a moment, "Get to the bridge and set a course for Tarros-4."

"Why?" Roxy asked with a yawn.

"Just do it...I'll explain later."

The pink rabbit left the room but Fox's conversation went on...

"_You have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice..." _Fox said.

Krystal chuckled to herself, normally that would have had an effect on her"_...Fox I don't mean to lead you on, but, you know that we can never go back to the way we were before. I'll always love you, but, I can never forget what you did._

_Krystal..." _Fox paused for a moment, it hurt but he understood, "_...I understand...and I'll always love you as well...but don't think for one minute that doesn't mean you aren't still my friend. This thing between us is my doing...I'll just have to learn to deal with that...but right now I think we have a common problem. I seem to have seriously pissed Omni off myself. I apparently stole some weapon or something that they seem pretty adamant on getting back...They even hired that snake Leon to kill me, whatever is left of him is back on Titania..."_

"_What did you take?"_

"_I'm not sure,but, I think this all has something more to do with my new crew member. I'll explain as soon as we get you out of there..."_

Krystal grinned a bit, "_How are you going to get past Wolf?"_

"_Well...I'll just have to think about that on my way there won't I?"_

"_I'll contact you again in a few hours...Creed knocked out the power supply here, so we aren't going anywhere for a while...I'm sure he'll separate us after too long. He did send for a mechanic maybe you could use that to get onboard here..."_

Fox rubbed the back of his neck, _"I just might do that..."_

"_Good...and Fox...thank you..."_

* * *

**-Wolf's ship-**

"A few hours later"

Wolf resorted to watching his prisoners with an assault rifle in hand, Creed couldn't break through the Turillium bars but, Wolf wasn't about to take that chance. Krystal could sense the lupine's impatience, if anything it was his greatest downfall...he got mad, way too easily. By taking advantage of that in their fights Fox had always put the odds in his own favor...Wolf was just easy. As Krystal sat there she kept delving further into the wolf's mind...she knew why he was after her now, he was sore that Fox's life wasn't taken by him, which meant he was still only second best. Creed had fallen asleep a short while ago...then again after what he went through to get the generator offline she didn't really blame him for being a bit tired...

"So...how are the others?" Krystal asked.

Wolf smirked at her, "Small talk? You're in a bad position to be askin questions."

"Oh knock it off...we're old team mates remember?"

"Wouldn't really know much..." He replied, "...last I heard Panther tried the same act he did with you, got himself killed...or arrested or something, and I haven't see Leon in years..."

Krystal couldn't help but too smile as she remembered what Fox had told her...

"What's so funny?" Wolf demanded.

"Oh nothing...but if it's Leon you're searching for, I believe the body is still on Titania."

The thought of one of his oldest friends death made Wolf clench his fangs tight, "GOD DAMN IT KALA!! IS THAT FUCKING MECHANIC HERE YET?!"

The PA system called back, "They just called back...one of their guys was injured on another job so they're sending someone named Roxy...she'll be here in about an hour."

Krystal though for a moment...Roxy? The name was familiar. Wait a minute...the one Fox was talking to?...

* * *

**-The Dark Star-**

"Tarros-4's orbit"

Roxy and the others were all gathered in the docking bay, the pink furred rabbit dressed in a light blue pair of coveralls with a pair of black boots. The original mechanics stood idly by...they'd been paid quite a bit of money for going along with this. Roxy held back her long ears and slid on one of the mechanic's smelly, blue and white baseball caps...

"Now you remember what you're supposed to do missy?" One of the mechanics, a brown bear, asked.

"Go to the ship's second deck...locate the Main Power Relay control panel. Then when you give me the word through this thing..." She said lifting one of her ears showing a small earring type device, "I pull the relay to their long range scanners giving Fox and Silver the time to sneak aboard. Now can you tell me why you are so eager to help us?"

The other mechanic, a light red furred fox, chuckled, "This man is supposed to be dead..." He said slapping Fox on the back, "...not often you get the chance to help a dead hero save his friends. Hell I've looked up to James since I was a kit...so helping Fox McCloud is like a dream come true. Plus this here is gonna make my daughter pretty damn happy..." He finished holding up a signed photo of the famous vulpine.

Fox and the two mechanics left the docking bay and Roxy began to board the mechanics's small dingy ship, but she was stopped by the Silver fox that had stayed behind, "R-Roxy..."

"What's wrong? I have to go..."

Silver had an odd look on his face as though he was trying to figure something out, "I don't know why but...I'm afraid...but not for myself..."

Roxy smiled, "Aww...Silver are you worried about me?"

"I think that could be what this is...I don't know..."

"Well...Did you feel like this before you knew I was going alone?" She asked.

Silver hesitated for a moment...then shook his head...

Roxy smiled and hugged the confused fox, "Then yes that's called worry...and don't I'll come back."

Silver at first didn't return the gesture, mainly for the fact that he didn't know what to think of it...it made him feel strangely warm though he did suspect that had to do with her body heat. Despite the cause however he found that he liked this feeling very much and mimicked the gesture..

"Please be careful...you and Scar are the only people I can remember."

"Just try not to think about it okay?" Roxy said as she pulled away from him.

"I'll be back before you know it..."

Roxy pulled away from the Dark Star heading for the ship orbiting the closest of the planet's four moons; it was a larger ship, Trion class Cornerian cruiser, it looked relatively similar to a standard freighter if not for slightly irregular curve in the body structure. He ship was welcomed in the docking bay by a white she wolf...who seemed a bit happy to see Roxy as she disembarked from the mechanics's ship. Roxy was now wearing a tool belt that matched her fake mechanic's uniform, as well as carrying a small toolbox...

"What kept you?" The wolf asked.

Roxy quickly thought of something and spun about kicking the hull of the small ship, "This piece of shit..."

Kala laughed, "Yeah...we know the feeling...name's Kala..." She said extending a paw.

"Roxy...so where's the problem?" Roxy asked returning the gesture.

"Follow me...knowing this pile of crap. You'll probably find more problems than just the one with the generator."

"So what do ya think kicked the generator?" Roxy asked sounding almost professional, "Your back up working alright?"

As they made their way down the halls Roxy noted how much more dingy and ruined the ship was compared to the Dark Star; the walls were a horribly rusty shade, there were things piled everywhere, and even several weapons lay on the floor improperly stored...

"The back up's working just fine...but, we're transporting prisoners and something went wrong with the primary power generator..." Kala said clearly leaving out the reason why their power was offline, "So the captain of the ship is in the holding area watching them."

"Yeah...don't blame your captain really..." Roxy replied as they boarded a small elevator,"...after all you never know when one of those psychos'll find a way out of a cell."

They finally reached the 2nd deck where everything relating to the ship's systems was located...

"Well..." Kala said as she let Roxy out, "...I need to get back to the bridge."

"Oh by the way..." Roxy remembered, "...with the work I'll be doing down here I may have to recalibrate some of your ship's drive systems so. Some of your systems may kick offline for a bit."

"Yeah no problem...I'll let the captain know so he doesn't freak when the lights kick."

With that being said Kala left Roxy alone in the unfamiliar room full of complicated devices, she reached to her ear and activated the small communicator device, "I'm in...where do I go?"

"Good work Roxy..." Fox's voice came back, "Mitch gave me the specs to that class of ship...now there should be a long path in front of you leading to a big machine making a really low humming sound, that is the cell drive to their hyperdrive engines."

Roxy walked up to the machine, a large, round pillar that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. I produced a purple light and a very low humming sound, "I'm right in front of it."

"Okay. From there walk to your le--no right around that big pillar. You should come across another hall go down that hall until you find what looks like a metal box on the wall...it should be the box we were talking about earlier..."

Against the wall at the end of this narrow hall was a large metal box built into the side of the wall, a large, thick pipe extended from the top of the box and into the ceiling...across the front in yellow and black was written...Main Power Relays.. She removed the small latch at the base of the box and looked inside; it was full of small glass tubes connected by flat metal fittings at their ends to other metal fitting coming from the box, below each there was a label each of which she read as she guided a finger over them...

"Life support, gravity, lights, primary engines, secondary engines, main generator, back-up generator, short range scanners, long range scanners..."

Fox heard all he needed, "Okay I'm on my way there cut their long range scanners now...then give it three minutes and cut their short range scanners."

Roxy waited a few minutes and cut the short range scanners, then Fox's voice came back, "Okay after the scanners cut the security to the docking bay and get there."

Roxy did as she was told and quickly rushed to the docking bay, unfortunately she was met by the white she wolf that was apparently working on a wolfen for the time being. Kala got to her feet cleaning her paws of some oil or something...

"Um..." Roxy thought up a quick lie, "No, no I just forgot something on my ship."

She bought the lie but just as she turned around she noticed an arwing docking with the ship, Kala started to say something but, it was muffled by the impact of a tool box to the back of her head. Roxy sort of panicked when she saw the blood that now covered the lupine's scalp, Kala had been really nice to her...she didn't want to kill her. As she checked over the she wolf Fox stepped beside her...

"Is she gonna be okay?"

"Jesus Christ...What the fuck did you do? Hit her with a..." Fox cut himself off as he saw the mess of tools all over the floor. Seeing what she'd been hit with Fox knelt down and inspected the wolf, "Yeah she'll be okay...gonna have a helluva headache when she wakes up though...probably won't be too fond of you either."

"She was really nice...I didn't mean to. I just saw your ship and panicked."

Fox shook his head, "Well next time use your paws like we practiced...that's what the training's for."

The two made sure Kala was out of the way before they headed down the halls. Fox had clearly studied the layout of the ship thoroughly as he seemed to know where he was going; they headed down the main hall to the elevators, then to the third deck, and down another hall that led only to a single door...

* * *

**-inside the holding cells-**

Krystal's ears perked up as she felt a familiar thought pattern approaching the room, then stood and kicked Creed lightly. Creed rolled over and without a single word he seemed to know what was going on.

Krystal knelt down beside the massive fox, "I need you to make some sort of distraction." She whispered.

Creed chuckled and popped his neck before standing up, and walking to the bars, "Hey!!" He yelled to the half asleep wolf sitting at a small desk, "I got a nice idea.. Now that I'm not laid out, how about you open this door so we can settle this like men!!"

"Now why the fuck would I do that?" Wolf's face curled into a hate filled snarl as he felt the barrel of a blaster push the back of his head.

"Cuz it would have made this so much easier..." Fox said smiling from the other side of the blaster.

The lupine's ears picked up, "McCloud?"

Fox laughed, "Actually you can call me Scar now." Fox said reaching around Wolf and tossing the keys to the cell to Roxy, "Let 'em out Roxy."

As the bunny rushed to the door Wolf made a sharp movement snatching the blaster from Fox's paw but as he turned and pointed the blaster at Fox's face he found himself staring down the barrel of his own. The fox had stripped it from his thigh holster in the same motion he'd used to strip him of his weapon...

"You're gett'n slow Wolfy..." Fox said with a sly smile.

That grin was what caused Wolf to pull the trigger regardless of whether or not the one in Fox's paw would kill him. The blaster only produced an all too familiar empty cartridge sound...

Fox's smile grew as his off paw held up the weapons plasma cartridge, "Not gonna do much without this eh Wolfy?"

"You're supposed to be dead."

Fox nodded, "Yeah...so I've heard..." Fox looked over Wolf's shoulder to see that the others had been freed, "So you wanna settle this here and now or you gonna let us go? Or would you rather I just shot you here and now?"

Wolf donned his own grin, "You know how it is Pup...just do'n ma job...You know I don't like admit'n it but, ya got the drop on me."

Fox held the wolf at gunpoint all the way to the docking bay, Krystal, Creed, Roxy, Lia all boarded the mechanic's ship and as it took off Fox removed the blaster from the back of Wolf's head...

"You know that wasn't necessary Pup." Wolf said as they handed each other the other's blaster.

Fox chuckled, "Yeah I know...but, you didn't have to lay it on so thick ya know. I said make it look real...not make it real, I just wanted you to find 'em for me not kidnap 'em."

"What can I say?..." Wolf asked shrugging his shoulders, "Had ta know if we still had what it takes."

"Oh...that reminds me..." Fox looked to Kala who still lay unconscious on the ground, "Apologize to Kala when she wakes up for me?"

Wolf knelt beside the white furred she wolf, "I will...we've been married three years now...and I can tell you she's tougher than she looks."

"Tell her that Roxy is really sorry too...I probably should have told her about this whole thing huh?"

"Probably...but, I think you were right back there..." Wolf said looking at his old blaster, then placing it in Fox's paws, "Look I don't know what this whole thing you told me about is that's going on with Omni but...you be careful...This belonged to my dad so, you bring it back alright?"

"So how are things going back on Corneria?"

Wolf lowered his head, "You haven't been watching the news have you?" Wolf said, "Corneria and Katina are on the verge of civil war...one claims the other stole weapons, the other blames the other for the same thing. It doesn't match up...but it was Omni that claimed you were dead, that was when I got suspicious considering how soon afterward you contacted me."

"So you think they're behind all of this too huh?" Fox shook Wolf's paw, "Do me a favor and contact Slip as soon as you can and get me all the low down you can on something called 'Silver Fox'...wow how am I gonna explain this all to Krystal?"

"I think it would be safer if you didn't, she was pretty happy when you came in..." Wolf said winking to Fox, "Best not fuck with it."

Fox sighed desperately, "She keeps reassuring me that it's over."

"You sure she's telling you that..." Wolf asked as he walked Fox to his arwing, "...or trying to convince herself?"

Fox climbed into the cockpit of his arwing, "Well I personally hope for that second option but...I'm not holding my breath."

"Yeah well...call in a bit more often...I keep hearing this things about you dying. Kinda be depressing to me after trying myself for all those years."

Fox laughed, "You know what O'donnell...I'm glad you stopped." His words caused Wolf to chuckle to himself.

"So am I Pup..." He replied, "Now get your ass offa my ship, before I change my mind!!" He yelled with a smile.

Wolf watched as his old rival flew out of the docking bay, "You take care of yourself boy..."

* * *

**-Undisclosed Location-**

The figure known as Doctor Camille enters her bosses office followed by a large reptile with light gray scales; his massive chest exposed through his unbuttoned brown vest, his matching pants had frayed leather down the seams, and a huge knife slapped against his right thigh with each large step that he took...his tail was long and thick, and his neck was almost unnoticeable, below the head of a large reptile, his elongated snout layered with powerful teeth, his green eyes were riddled with questions, a round brimmed brown hat sat atop his head which he threw to the desk before tossing a folder to the table and taking a seat...

"Oi...you wanner explain this 'ere...job don't seem right." The crocodile said with a thick accent.** (his accent would sound almost Australian)**

"Do I truly need to Sydney?" The figure behind the desk asked, "You never would have come all the way here from Argon if you had questions about the job..."

The croc lay back resting his boots on the desk, "You know ma rules..."

"Yes yes yes...no women. Fortunately for both of us I only want one thing..." The one behind the desk said throwing Sydney a small photo, "...bring me this person and the money is yours..."

Sydney chuckled scratching at a black collar around his neck, "I ain't the first bloke you called on this am I?"

"No you aren't...the first was killed by an unknown assailant...but nonetheless do not underestimate the one in the photo..."

"Though sort eh? Good...haven't had me a scrap proper in some time..." The croc stood up and headed out the door, "Expect a call in three days..."

The one behind the desk let out a deep breath, "He seems to be learning better than to trifle with me..." He said laying a small controller on his desk.

"Sir I thought you said he was unruly..." Camille inquired.

Just then the PA system cut in, "SIR!!" A voice screamed, "The Argonite just came through sector six...he killed 5 scientists on the way to his ship!!"

"Do...NOT agitate him...He is far too valuable for me to have killed...Camille..."

"Yes sir..." The doctor snapped to attention.

"Get everything ready for an extraction and a mass reproduction of Number-13. After we have the key I want that army ready..."

"Yes sir..."

* * *

**AN: Sorry for the long wait on the update...anyhow, this chapter was a change of pace from the others...but the next will pick the pace back up as Sydney goes on the hunt...there was a build up to his entrance for a reason okay...Like always thanks to all that have decided to stik with this fic...R&R...let me know what ya think and I'll be see'n ya all next time around...  
**


	19. Chapter XVIII

**-Chapter XVIII-**

"The Dark Star"

Fox pulled his arwing into the docking bay of the Dark Star with only one thought on his mind, telling Krystal the truth, though he decided to wait until the proper time, when she was less likely to blow her top at him. To his surprise nobody welcomed him at the docking bay, the two mechanics had already left. The first place he headed was for his room he was quickly startled by the steel armed giant that waited for him though...

"What are you doing in here?"

"You were the one Wolf was waiting for weren't you?" He wasn't nearly as slow as Fox had originally thought.

"Look...I'm sorry, he was only supposed to find you guys...he's...got a fucked up sense of humor."

Creed laughed a bit, "Well if that's the case it was a bit funny...but don't tell Krystal, she's confused enough as it is."

"She's done with me...what's she got to be confused about?" Fox asked gathering some fresh clothes and disappearing into the bathroom.

"She can say it all she wants...maybe even convince herself that it's true...but her heart speaks for itself." Creed replied, "You should have seen the look on her face when she saw you come through that door and put that blaster to Wolf's head."

"Huh...really? So where is everybody?"

"That Silver kid is with Roxy and my sister...Roxy and her apparently go way back. As for Krys...well she's probably somewhere lost in her own thoughts again."

"Yeah..." Fox said returning from the room in a new white tank top and black jeans, "So what are you all going to do?"

"Well Krystal was always talking about getting a new ship...maybe it is time to ditch that old pile, anyone could catch us in that thing..."

"There aren't nearly enough rooms but, if you could all work something out you can all stay here. Be a lot harder for Omni to hit us."

"You'll have to talk to Krystal about that...she may be my friend but, she's also my captain so..."

Fox sighed, "Yeah I understand...I'll go find her and see what we're all gonna do."

Fox headed out the door and into the halls, he felt nervous even though he hadn't found her, but he had a good idea of where she was at the moment. He headed through the halls slowly thinking of what to say to her, nothing really came to mind...after all she claimed she no longer cared...but if that was the case why contact him of all people for help? What did it matter? She was here and she was safe what more could he really ask for? He could hear Roxy and Creed's sister talking very loudly from down the hall toward Roxy's room. Soon enough he stood in front of the doors to the kitchen which slid open to welcome him inside. The blue beauty that stuck to his mind was leaning her head against the viewing window out at the stars. Her ears perked up as she felt him enter the room but found it odd that he didn't say anything...he took out something to eat and a bottled drink then took a seat with his back facing her. He had finished his food and half his drink before anything was said...

"That was you back on Xenass wasn't it?" She asked without moving from her position.

"Yeah that was me."

"I didn't realize it at first...not until I found that letter that was stuck in my ship's docking bay door." Krystal said standing up strait, "I remember the day you first gave me that note on Corneria...I was so happy, to finally find someone that cared."

"I still do..."

"Then why did you leave me behind?" She turned toward Fox who did the same, and she pulled on a gold chain around her neck which pulled a gold and diamond ring from between her breasts, Fox instantly turned away, "You remember what you told me this meant when you gave it to me Fox? I was still pretty unfamiliar with your customs and all...but all you really needed to tell me was that it meant 'forever'...what happened to forever Fox? Cuz I thought forever would have lasted a lot longer than that."

"You still don't understand..." Fox said still keeping his gaze away from the ring.

"No you're the one that doesn't understand...you never did..." She said walking by and placing the ring in his paw, "Look...I'm sorry if all this hurts you...it hurts me too. I just needed you to understand that my crew seems to want to stick around for a bit, until we find out what this whole thing is with Omni. I just don't want you to delude yourself into thinking that it has something to do with us...like I said before I will always love you Fox, but I seriously doubt that we'll ever be anymore than friends again..."

Fox understood what she was trying to say, after all there is no worse feeling than being betrayed, "You all need to work out something with the rooms...I'll find somewhere else to sleep."

"If that's your choice..." She said leaving the room.

* * *

**-000-**

Over the course of the next day Creed and Roxy headed down to the surface to retrieve all of their things from the ship that was left behind, which he sold to some sort of merchant via Krystal's command, she'd gotten tired of the old thing in the first place. When they finally decided to fall back to Sauria where they could cool down and think of what was going on, they arranged for everyone a room...Creed, Krystal, and Silver were all given their own rooms while Roxy and Lia agreed to share one as they were close friends from Nex's bar. One night however Creed realized that he hadn't seen Fox in some time wandered off in search of the missing vulpine...he eventually found himself in the docking bay where he surly found the poor animal. Fox was laying sideways in the cockpit of his arwing, a spilled bottle of brown liquor lay next to him, alongside an old photo and what appeared to be an old gold ring on a gold chain...

"Poor guy..."

He smiled at the sight of the photo that he'd picked up; it was of Fox and Krystal, he seemed to be carrying her piggy back style while she was kissing him on the cheek, Fox wore a huge smile, "Wow...don't think I've ever seen Krys that happy."

It was late but, his curiosity had him now...he made his way to Krystal's room, and knocked on the door...surprisingly enough she answered it. He didn't even bother asking to come in or care for the fact that she was hardly wearing anything, but pushed his way into the room...

"What the hell do you want Creed?"

"You still wanna know why I was in prison?"

"Yeah but...why so suddenly."

"Cuz when I'm done...you're gonna explain this..." He said tossing the photo to her, her eyes teared up a bit when she saw it.

"Fine..." Krystal replied.

Creed stood up and headed out of the room, "Good. Get something decent on and meet me in the kitchen...you people are depressing as fuck, I need a drink."

Creed was sitting in the ship's kitchen when Krystal walked in, she didn't know what the clear stuff was he was drinking but she could clearly tell that it had nothing to do with water. After sitting across from him he didn't say anything, instead he simply sat there and finished off his drink. Krystal started to say something but was cut off...

"After my dad threw me out...you know just before I joined the military. I was forced to finish high school, military set me up with everything I'd ever need..." Creed started, "Living area, food, supplies...so I did what was asked of me. I was only required to do two years there, unfortunately that first two months was when I met Maria. We were your average teenage couple, pretty much did everything and went everywhere together, after that first year she'd done the impossible...I didn't miss home anymore. She disagreed with me joining the military but, like I told her it was too late I'd joined long before I'd met her, unfortunately I'd asked her to marry me several weeks before they shipped me into my unit..."

"So what you're telling me that you're such a hard ass because of some girl?"

Creed didn't seem to happy with that interruption, "Look just sh--ut the fuck up..." Creed said, "It happened about...I'd say a month after having my neural links put in. My unit was stationed in some sort of desert on the far side of Katina when we were ambushed, Johnny took one in the back before we realized anything. Three of my men including Johnny and myself made it out alive; we returned fire as well we should have and after a short while I saw the glare off of a sniper's scope so I turned to that position and fired took out the sniper. We radioed for a pick up for Johnny, who's a paraplegic now, and I went to make sure they were all dead. Only one of the enemies...the sniper that had been aiming at me was still half alive...lung shot. She had joined the military, with the intent of kill me...claiming that apparently I had abandoned her. Her last words to me where "This is your fault...", not I love you, or I'm sorry, or even fuck you...but this is you fault. I don't expect you to tell me what happened between the two of you but, whatever it was it isn't worth going around being pissed off all the time...Maria did the same thing and look what it did to her. I would only hope you weren't in such a hurry to be just like me...I cling to what friends and family I have because I'm afraid that one day they may have a fucking gun to my head...What did he do to you that was so fucking god awful in the first place?'

She didn't want to say it really, "He--he left me behind. I spent so long alone and, after he tells me that we'll always be together he pushed me aside. Then during the war he came back for me claiming that he only left me behind for my own protection..."

"And you don't believe him?"

"Why should I? He already lied to me once..." Krystal replied, "Sometimes I just wish I could read his mind like everyone else's."

"Well at the very least are you still his friend?"

"Of course I am..."

"Then why remind him so often that the two of you are through? You think he's too stupid to take the hint? Cuz there's a drunken sight in the docking bay that says otherwise, or do you just take pleasure in crushing his heart with every spare opportunity you can get?"

Krystal sighed, "I don't mean to hurt him...but, every time I see his face it's all I can think of...Him leaving me there on that god forsaken rock."

Creed, disappointed, shook his head before standing up, "Then if you told me you were over all of this...Why is it your mind is still settled on the past...thinking of him as and ex instead of the friend he's trying to be? Just find some way to get over it alright...I don't want everyday on this ship to be this depressing. And never...ever bring up Maria or my past."

* * *

**-That morning-**

"6:05am"

Fox's paw instantly shot to the side of his head as it felt like it could crack open any moment, this was exactly why he hated drinking. He opened his mouth rubbing his tongue against the roof of it several times against a horribly bitter taste that was all too familiar...vomit. He kicked his blanket off of himself and attempted to roll out of his makeshift bed; there was a terrible kink in his back and neck. All of a sudden his stomach felt like it was hit by a shock wave...he rolled over instantly trowing up over the edge of the cockpit...at least it would have been better off if it had been vomit...nothing but a strong, horrible, burning sensation as his stomach tried to clear itself of what was no longer there. It was after the fit of dry heaves that he decided to find some sort of food before he was forced to come back here and clean all of this up. As the door to the docking bay slid open the airy hiss, which made the hung-over vulpine cringe as the sound felt like a blade being drug across the inside of his skull...he looked back through his still slightly blurry vision at the mess of vomit and spilled liquor..sure it had done it's job and he had no clue why he was so depressed last night but, was this aftermath really worth it all? He seriously doubted it as he made his way toward the kitchen, his footsteps felt like drum beats in his head, every sound that he heard was amplified as it rebounded off the walls of his skull. One mind searing door sound later he found himself in the kitchen.

He tried some chips but, the crunch was the worst noise yet as it started on the inside of his head, in the end the only thing he could eat was a sandwich, and drink a very strong cup of coffee. After he'd been sitting there for a while the door sounded again making his lip curl and his left eye twitch a bit from the pain. Creed sauntered by and made himself a cup of coffee before sitting down across from Fox...

"Feeling any better?"

Fox wore a rather pissed look, "Oh...I feel fine. Except the fact that my gut feels like I swallowed a Nova bomb..." Fox looked like he held back from vomiting again, "...and my poor head. Why did I drink so much?"

"Why would I tell you?" Creed asked, "Didn't you get wasted so you'd forget?"

Fox took a long sip of his coffee, "I think so...can't really remember. I don't look forward to cleaning up that mess I left in the docking bay though."

"Maybe something a bit weaker next time?" Creed suggested.

"Noo! No next time...it was a bad idea this time."

"Good maybe you learned your lesson..."

"Yeah...so where are we headed?" Fox asked.

"Sauria...you thought it would be a good idea to fall back to a safe place for a bit...you know to find out what Omni is up to."

Fox thought for a moment, "Right...no orbital synch though...we land altogether. It's a lot harder to find a ship on the ground."

"Hmmm...I've never seen Sauria, nice chance to take a break from all this crap." Creed refilled his cup, "But that's not what concerns me. Roxy let me in on all of the strange things that Silver has been through..."

"And...?"

"She said when you two found him he was wearing a tag that said Silver Fox right?" Creed asked.

"Yeah so?"

Creed sat down with a worried look on his face, "When we ran into my sister on Xenass she was looking for an experimental weapon called Silver Fox..."

"So what's your point?"

"Look he could be dangerous..." Creed was cut off.

"And what dose that mean? You want me to lock him up?" Fox was getting a bit agitated, "Listen I don't know what you think he is but I do. He isn't some kind of bloodthirsty monster; he's a confused, lost little kid and the last thing he needs right now is to be treated like some sort of freak."

"Fox we have no clue what he's capable of..."

"Speak for yourself...I've seen him show emotion..." Fox replied, "And in my book that gives him as much right as any other person on or off of this ship. Sure I've seen him fight in a manner that seemed unnatural but, he did it to protect me. So if he is this supposed super weapon...why did he fight so hard to save my life?"

Creed had no idea what to think...How could he be the weapon that Lia was looking for if he helped Fox?

Fox nodded his head, "That's what I thought...Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a mess to clean up."

Fox didn't enjoy the job but it was his doing that put the docking bay in the state it was in so it was his responsibility to clean it up. Unfortunately as the liquor began to wear off he recalled what had caused him to resort to it in the first place...this was mainly due to the gold engagement ring he found hanging from the control panel of his makeshift arwing bed. With a heavy heart he slid the chain around his neck; a small part of him just wanted to jump into his arwing and leave everything, all the memories and pain and heartache behind. He'd finished and pulled off his shirt as he noticed something...he recoiled at the smell of the thing, "Ho!" He exclaimed as his eyes began to water. The smell was a vile mixture of vomit, booze, sweat, and something else that he was a little afraid to question, as he tossed the disgustingly rancid thing over his shoulder to the ground he heard the docking bay door open. He didn't need to turn around to know who it was, he could smell her a mile away, an enticing mixture of Blueberries and Lavender...he'd always loved that smell. Krystal approached him, she clearly understood why he ignored her and went about his work, finally after trying to get his attention several times she grabbed him by the shoulder forcing him to look at her...

"WHAT!!" He yelled, it was a tone he'd never used against her, "What the fuck do you want? You come to make me feel any worse about myself? Cuz it ain't fuck'n possible!"

Krystal found it a bit hard to look him in the eye, "I--I'm sorry...I do want us to be friends but...Every time I look at you, I see that same creep that left me on Kew. There is some level of hate for you that I don't want inside of me and I've come up with only one way to get rid of it."

Without warning Fox was doubled over as the vixen's fist slammed the air from is lungs, "W—what...the fuck...?" As he caught his breath he saw that she was in her usual hand to hand fighting stance, "I see where you're going with this...and I'm not gonna fight you Krystal..."

Krystal shrugged her shoulders, "Then don't fight...Just stand there while I beat the hell out of you."

Fox managed to dodge or block what punches and kicks where thrown at him, though he could tell from the force behind them that she'd become a lot stronger than he had ever recalled. Unfortunately he misjudged one of her strikes and he felt a sting in his right cheek, the fire of an opened wound; he felt his cheek, there was fresh blood ebbing from four slashes, they were deep, and would possibly leave scars. He was shocked, she only used her claws when she was serious, another barrage of strikes came at him, a much longer string of blows...the fact that she was attacking him openly like a common enemy began to build up inside of him, it made his heart sink and burn...but the fire in his heart soon spread to every inch of himself and without any sort of effort he swatted away one of the blue fighter's kicks and swiped at the left side of her face. Krystal staggered back in a bit of shock as she noticed the same mark on her cheek she'd left on his...she hadn't expected it to be so easy but she finally forced him into defending himself...this fight wasn't to hurt each other but she knew it was the only way to get their anger out, even if they had to beat it out of each other...

She rushed in on him with expert fashion, kicking, clawing, punching, after a long exchange of blocking and dodging each other's attacks Fox caught her by the ankle. In and instant reprisal Krystal spun off of her free foot driving it into the side of his head and landing back on it, but since he still held the foot she spun back in the other direction, this time kicking him in the opposite side of the face and in the gut on her way to the floor...it didn't work. The vulpine's grip on her ankle remained strong despite the damage his face had taken. In an unexpected move Fox faced his back to her quickly throwing himself to the ground driving his elbow into her gut...the impact nearly made the poor vixen throw up. In a rather impressive return she rolled into a sitting position on his chest striking him in the face with several punches before, from her sitting position leaping into a back flip and landing in another sitting position on Fox's gut, though this forced the vulpine's body to fold up around her...she was surprised as his grip locked around her neck then with a mighty force pulled forward tossing her back toward a large pile of plasma cells for the arwing's engines and weapon systems. The two stood there for a bit before Fox rushed back in on her, Krystal preformed a graceful moonsault over the rushing fox, as he turned to meet her she did a back handspring kicking him in the chin, and as she landed she leaped forward driving her shoulder into his chest, a shot which knocked him to the ground sliding him back several feet before he kicked back onto his feet and rushing in on her. His dashing punch was dodged placing the blue one to his back...with equal grace Fox preformed a jump spinning back kick, Krystal ducked away from the concussive force she knew his kicks could deliver at a moments notice, then jumped over the leg sweep he threw...unfortunately as she landed she found that the sweep was just to catch her off guard as Fox spun into a strait punch to her chest that flung her into the stack of power cells. Fox took a second to try breathing the fire out of his lungs, the vixen was a tough fighter, especially when she was being serious. He cautiously approached the mess he'd made he knew better than to think she'd go down so easily. As he approached the mess one of the plasma cells struck him in the head causing him to stumble back several feet, the blue vixen seemed to rush in on him from nowhere and they soon were blocking and dodging each other's punches and kicks again. The sound of the toppling mass of power cells caused Creed to rush into the room...he laughed a bit to himself toward what he saw, he had to stop Lia and Roxy from trying to interfere when they joined him...

"NoNoNo..." Creed said holding the two down by their shoulders, "This is just what those two needed, leave them be..."

"But they're beating the fuck out of each other...they're bleeding!" Roxy argued.

Creed scoffed, "No shit...I said it's what they needed. I didn't say it wasn't a real fight."

"Creed they're gonna hurt each other..." Lia protested.

"I wouldn't doubt it..." Creed responded, "...but who better to knock the stubbornness out of themselves than each other?"

"Are you sure they'll be okay?" Roxy asked.

"Yeah...they just have a lot of frustration to work out on each other...but this is their business not ours...just go back to whatever it was you were all doing. Speaking of which where is that Silver kid?" He asked as they left the room.

Krystal and Fox kept fighting, they didn't even notice that they were being watched...neither of them even noticed the tears in each other's eyes as they kept on assaulting one another. Their legs were sore, their lungs burned, every muscle in their bodies ached...they had been fighting for well over an hour...as they faced off Krystal noticed that her sight was going red from the blood that leaked into her eyes, it stung more as it was mixed with the sweat that soaked the fur on her forehead...Fox was having a similar problem...he suspected the power cell she'd thrown at him had caused the cut on his forehead. They suddenly lunged in at each other each making a spin in a direction opposite that of the other, and at the same moment their faces were both met by the foot of the other...the impact sending them both to the cold metal floor. They lay there heavily battered and bruised...and after a few seconds of laying there...unconscious...

* * *

**AN: actually this chapter turned out to be nice an long...hope you enjoyed the chapter. R&R...ya know voice your opinion...always helps. Thanks as always for reading and I'll see ya next time... ()  
**


	20. Chapter XIX

**-Chapter XIX-**

"The next morning"

The only thing aware to Fox when he woke up was the fact that he didn't want to be awake, his head was pounding like a tribal drum, his entire body hurt, and worse of all he could swear that he had cracked ribs because the act of breathing alone put him in immense pain. He groaned from the fire in his sides as he finally managed to sit up only to find himself in bed, he tried to look around only to find that his left eye had swollen shut and refused to open. He managed to get to his feet, used the bathroom, then headed out toward the kitchen, there was a stagger to his steps as he seemed to be suffering the side effects of a pretty nasty concussion. Fox staggered through the halls until he finally reached the kitchen; despite the fact that almost everyone was there nobody said a word as he made himself breakfast and, very painfully sat down. After Fox was a ways into his meal Creed sat down at the opposite end of his table...

"You do'n alright?"

Fox swallowed his food with a bit of difficulty, "I'll be okay...how's Krys?"

"She's no worse off than you..." Creed chuckled, "She's by no means any better off but...she'll live."

"Where are we now?" Fox asked.

"Sauria...we landed a few hours ago. You two have been out for nearly two days...you laid into each other pretty fucking bad."

Silver approached the two, "S--scar? Are you gonna be okay? Why were you fighting the blue one?"

Fox called over Roxy, "I downloaded a text from an old high school archive it's on the laptop in my room...make him read it."

"Okay but why?"

"Because he'll learn a lot faster without having to ask me a question every ten seconds..."

Roxy chuckled, "Alright...come on Silver..." She said taking the silver furred fox by the arm and leading him out of the room.

After a few more minutes of talking Fox could hear the door behind him slide open, followed by limping footsteps. Creed instantly jumped from his seat and headed into the cooking area, and soon the chair to Fox's left was occupied by a battered blue vixen; her right eye was in the same shape as Fox's left, he figured it was most likely from that last kick they gave each other, like him she was favoring her ribs and seemed to have a substantial headache, her limping was a bit worse than his as she seemed to have trouble with her right ankle...she let out a slight yelp as she sat down. Apparently her back was still quite a bit sore as well...

"You alright?" Fox managed to ask. He was a bit happy to see her smile at him.

"Mmm-hmm..." She hummed hissing a bit from the pain in her side, "More or less anyway."

Creed set a plate of food in front of his captain, "I'm going to get some fresh air...I've never been to this planet so, it should prove interesting."

His sister quickly joined him at the door, "I wanna come too. The only planet I've seen was that piece of crap Xenass..."

The two vulpine were left alone; for the longest time they said nothing they just sat there and ate, Fox thinking of something to say. What could he say? They'd beaten the hell out of each other...and worst of all he wasn't sure why. Krystal simply sat there trying to remember the last time she'd been in so much pain, it was quite a few times worse than being shot. Finally however they both finished eating, and though it hurt him to stand Fox gathered together their plates and limped toward the kitchen...

Krystal laughed a bit but recoiled as her ribs stabbed at her, "I--remember when we used to spar like that all the time." This time Fox laughed.

"Well...not quite like that..." He said sliding her one of the blue bottled drinks from the fridge before sitting and opening one for himself, "Still...you wanna run this by me one more time? Why did you attack me?"

Krystal had a bit of trouble pulling the top off of her bottle before taking a drink, "It--it's stupid really, just something I remembered. Something I never should've forgotten..."

"Go on..." Fox coaxed her taking a sip from his own drink.

"Back on Cerinia...mother and father used to have these arguments, you know like mates often do..." She started, "...but, instead of staying mad at each other...one time they got into a fight, like the one we had. When it was over and they were in the state we are right now...they realized that, they weren't angry with one another anymore. SO that became their routine...when they got angry enough to hurt one another they would find a private place away from prying eyes and...fight..." She smiled at a reminiscent memory, "I remember this one time, they wandered into the woods for a place to settle one of their spats...and they had beaten each other so badly that Arlex had to carry them both back to the house on his back..."

"Who?"

"Oh...Arlex? I guess on Corneria you would have called him a Nanny, and a bodyguard...he was like the brother I never had. My parents intended for him to be my mate when I grew up but, it kinda backfired and we developed a sort of a sibling bond instead..." Krystal laughed, but stopped as she clutched her ribs, "...father was so angry when he found out that I thought of Arlex as a brother that he accidentally destroyed the side of the house...he was a very powerful Telekinetic, but he let his emotions run away with his head sometimes..."

"Huh..." Fox laughed, "Sounds like my mom...she was a hell of a pilot...military brat too. My grandfather on her side was some sort of general or something I don't know, she said she'd never go back to her home planet so, I never met the real guy. Her adopted dad however was a real hard ass; you had to make your bed just right, brush your teeth a certain way, fold your clothes a certain way, wear your hair a certain way...he was strict. Mom, she always seemed to know what I was doing at all times, it got sort of annoying at times. See when her and dad got into an argument..."

"What did they fight too?..."

Fox laughed, "What?! Hell no! Mom would've fucking killed him...dad's hand to hand skills weren't exactly flawless. They thought up a different way of doing things...They'd leave me with Peppy, and take a vacation somewhere, every now and again they took me along but, they were never gone any longer than a week...when they got back they were as right as rain. Mom was the one that taught me how to fight...apparently where she came from women were always taught how to fight at an early age, apparently her people had a love for martial arts...at first she didn't even consider teaching me how to fight...but, being the son of the Great James McCloud, I got roughed up a bit in school. She was so pissed when I came home all bloodied up and bruised that she nearly headed to the school to have words with the kids themselves...but instead she decided to make me a fighter. A few years later nobody really tried to fight me anymore...accept this one guy on my first year of high school..."

"Really? What did he do to deserve getting himself beaten?" Krystal asked.

A tear trailed down Fox's face, "That was the year mom died...I tried to make him stop but, he wouldn't let up on mom. Finally I snapped...it took Bill, Slippy, Katt, and Fara to get me off of him, by that time his arm, leg, jaw, and three ribs were broken..."

"I'm sorry...how did it happen?"

Fox wiped the tears from his eyes, "You mean mom? She was headed to pick me up from the school's local powerball game...dad had taken a cab to work. Mom never showed up. They said the bomb that was planted in dad's car was meant to kill him...they suspected that it had something to do with Andross, but they were never sure..."

"So he took both of your parents from you..."

Fox wiped the end of his nose on the back of his paw, "Yeah. You know it was always funny...I didn't really cry when dad died...but, when it happened to mom, I didn't think I'd ever stop..." Fox chuckled, "Wow...talk about flying off subject..."

"Anyhow..." He said with a smile, "Thanks for kicking my ass...I kind of needed it..." He finished extending his paw towards her, "...friends?"

He'd never actually shaken her paw before, it actually made her feel...well like he respected her, "Yeah..." She replied shaking his paw, "...friends. Can we get off the ship now? I haven't seen Sauria's surface in years..."

Fox struggled to stand then helped her to her feet, "Yeah I think I could used some fresh air too...but I'll meet you guys out there I need to go get something."

* * *

**(000)**

Krystal blinked her eyes shut as she stepped into the summer Saurian sun, reveling in the feel of the warmth on her fur...they were in Thorntail Hollow; she feel the spirit of summer through the very wind that blew through the tall green grass, the land was as beautiful as she remembered, the mountains in the distance were perfectly visible, the water in the stream that separated the Hollow, by which Creed and Lia stood was perfectly clear, the trees had shed their leaves to prepare for the summer's harsh droughts, several of the large Thorntails in the near foreground studied their new visitors from a distance, she could see the Warpstone in the near distance from where the ship was...his head always did stick up above that wall, she even saw the old Sharpclaw in her store's doorway for a moment glowering at the intruders before disappearing back inside. As she stood there on the hard soil Fox approached her from behind...

"Wow...summer's treated this place pretty well...last year wasn't so great." He said cringing in pain from a sudden movement that agitated his sore ribs.

"So what dose that mean? You been living here?" Krystal asked as she stepped into the still cool grass.

"For a year or two..." He answered.

"Where were you staying?"

Fox didn't bother telling her the truth, "Oh...here and there." He said walking up beside her, "Here..." He lay her old staff in her paws...

She pushed it back to him shaking her head, "No...I gave that to you for a reason Fox..."

"He stole it right out from under me...It isn't safe with me anymore...I—I should have told you earlier..."

Krystal's face went blank, "Fox...Did you find it?"

"No the thief did..."

"So all that time I though I was searching for nothing?"

Fox did as she said and slid the staff into his belt, "Yeah I think you were right...the blade is out there someplace. I'll show you what I took from Danzig tonight. For right now however, I believe we've both earned the right to some R and R. Lets get Silver and Roxy out here...I want to go soak in that cold stream for a while, but I want Silver to see this place."

* * *

**-Xenass Space Colony-**

"Nex's bar"

The bar looked nothing like it had previously...it was abandoned, completely snuffed out when Sydney walked in. The half of the swinging door that was left crumbled to the ground as he tried to push it open; the place was covered in black, the stairs and tables had been scorched and shot full of holes, a large amount of bodies covered the floor...most had been shot some others were missing body parts from the large explosion that had caused the fire...there was a massive hole in one of the walls, some of the rubble crumbled causing the Argonite to snap to attention toward the sound...huh, a falling ceiling fan...

"What a state..." He voiced kicking an unknown object away from his foot, "...these blokes've seen betta days. Might take a bit longer than I thought...ain't gotta clue 'ho did this but...fucka's gotta nasty streak. Fucka's out o' his mind, use'n bombs in this small place."

Taking due note that the place was empty, and half destroyed, the crocodile made his way outside...where he studied the area. Being raise on his home planet Argon, Sydney was strictly trained as a tracker since his entire planet was mainly swamplands there was a lot of call for the profession, he was also a well honed fighter and a ruthless bounty hunter. They headed north through the suburbs. He followed what tracks he could find through the place that the different sectors of the colony...he stopped at the building that Fox had used to outrun Krystal and Creed...

"They split up right 'ere...one o' these fucka's is pretty big." That was when the reptile noticed an impression in a nearby wall, it was a large handprint with strange patterns on it's fingers and palm, "Hmmm...bionics. Might wanna watch out fer this one..."

He went on to study the warehouse where Fox had killed Taniks and mentally took note of what he saw; bikes and cars...destroyed, wolves shot in the head, Venomian...no head. It was as he neared the building that he noticed a small rig on the ground, a small string holding the pin to a grenade... "Rigged the lot before hand, he's a smart one." He then made his way inside to the rancid smell of rotting flesh, a smell he simply shrugged aside. Then he found the two Fox had killed silently. He studied the raccoon nudging his limp neck which caused his head to slink from side to side on his chest. "Hmmm...like a fuck'n twig." He said turning toward the dead wolf at his feet, "Did these two all quite like...hmmm, wonda why. Nut'n else ta learn 'ere. See 'ere..." He said pulling out a piece of paper, "Next place he was located...Zentarii..."

* * *

**-Undisclosed Location-**

The shady figure still sat in his office, he hadn't heard any good news from Sydney yet...his plans were falling behind schedule, he still didn't have the weapon, and now it seemed his assassination attempt on Corneria had failed...but maybe there was an easier way...He depressed the intercom button on his desk...

"Lanley..."

"Yes sir." A voice came back through the small speaker next to the button.

"Get Sydney on the line..."

"Right away sir..."

Several moments later the familiar voice came through, "This betta be good..." The reptile's voice said.

"Yes...it is. I have a job much more suited to you talents. Seems my lead hitman got himself killed on his mission...I want you to take his place. It's just a slight detour for one such as you really..."

"What's it pay?" Sydney asked.

"Two million...and all you have to do is kill someone...the acting Cornerian General Peppy Hare..."

"Let the heat cool down from your boy's fuck up...and it's done."

* * *

**AN: Abut a normal sized chapter...poses more questions than it answer's huh...Well it's one of those. Remember to R&R and I'll try to make the next chapter a bit longer...till next time y'all...  
**


	21. Chapter XX

**-Chapter XX-**

"Sauria"

-9:45pm-

Though at some point the bruises began to heal, the battered vulpines were happy enough that they no longer donned any feelings of anger or even hatred...instead Krystal was spending her hours thinking about the object Fox claimed to have on him...she'd only told him about it once, an old bedtime story that her parents had once told her...but perhaps if it were true she could right whatever wrongs had been done with her at the cause. She did as Fox asked and sat in the Dark Star's kitchen until everyone was in bed. Eventually she was joined by the limping fox that carried both the staff and the small object that Danzig seemed so hellbent on claiming for his own, she seemed to eye the thing that was in Fox's paw he quickly slid it across the table, where Krystal quickly snatched it up and began to study it. She had no idea what it was, and after a bit of time she sat it down...

"Any idea what it is?" Fox asked, bringing them both a cup of coffee then carefully sitting down.

"Well it's definitely Cerinian...the letters on it are proof enough of that..." She said shifting a bit as her ribs seemed to hurt a bit, "But it must be made from the old technologies my people used...cuz I've never seen anything like this...thing. It's clearly made of metal but, it looks and feels like wood."

"What dose it say on it?"

She looked over the letters on the top of the cylinder, "I shall open only to he whom follows the path of light."

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" Fox asked grabbing the object and began to study it.

"I wouldn't give that too much thought...my ancestors were notorious at riddles." Krystal said, "Just another dead end...I should have known better than to believe in such a fairy-tale..." She said with a disappointed sigh, "Thank you for telling me Fox...good night."

"Yeah...good night Krys..."

After so long of studying the small object Fox found his way to his room, which at the time had now become the bridge. He reclined his captain's seat and set down the staff, then lay down on top of the blanket that he would have covered up with. Lying there on his back he studied the small thing for hours; he noticed that the small object was covered with tiny patterns that moved in odd configurations from ones side of it to the other, starting in strait lines they became more intertwined and contorted near the center then straightened out again. He tried several times to go to sleep but, after a few hours he gave up and simply kept obsessing over the small cylinder. After a short time he stopped trying to think about it, and his thoughts wondered off from this thing to that, he thought about Krystal, what had happened with Silver, him and Krystal's fight, all sorts of things his mind wouldn't stay on a single path. After a bit of time he tried again to get some sleep, but again his mind wouldn't allow it...He limped around the bridge a bit, then looked to the small object that sat on his blanket, mocking his intellect...

"Stupid fucking blue light..." He pouted, "Wait a second..."

He only just then fully noticed that at one end of the object, at the base of one of the small pattern's lines was a very dim blue light. He picked up the object and poked a finger at the light then slid his finger...it moved...

"Path of light? It can't be that fucking easy can it?" He asked himself.

He moved his finger from the light up the pattern...the light scaled up the facet under his finger; the pattern was far more intricate than he had thought, it hooked and turned and spun around the center of the object until it hooked around and back into the blue line of light which then vanished...

"SON OF A BITCH!!" He screamed in frustration trowing it quite forcefully into his seat.

Fox took a small break but eventually went back to doing the same thing again with what he hoped was a different line, he eventually broke out a marker and put a slash across the start of any line that failed...he kept working and working at it until several lines were left...

**(000)**

As they walked onto the bridge to say good morning to Fox, Krystal and Roxy both laughed even though the pain in Krystal's ribs brought tears to her eyes...He was snoring incredibly loud, something Krystal knew he only did when he was mind-numbingly tired. She also noticed the small object barely dangling from his paw as he had fallen asleep face down with his arms drooping over the sides of the chair. Krystal walked over and took the small cylinder out of his paw placing it on a nearby console then drew his blanket over him...

"I'll bet the stubborn asshole stayed up all night racking his brain over that stupid thing." Krystal said pointing to the cylinder.

The two turned and walked out of the room, "So how's Silver been doing now that he's been learning with that laptop?"

Roxy led Krystal down the halls to the young fox's room...they entered it quietly to find the silver furred fox sitting in front of the small computer screen his eyes quickly shooting from right to left. He didn't seem to notice them at all even thought they were standing in plain sight...

"That's why he wouldn't come out yesterday when we all went swimming in the stream...I don't think he's even come out to eat anything." Roxy said walking over to the t.v, "And look at these movies he was watching before..." She said flicking through the saved channels, "Romance, horror, drama, more romance, more horror, even more romance...Eighty percent of this list is all romance movies."

"You said he never shows emotion...maybe he's trying to learn or...re-learn how."

"I think it'd be a lot easier to answer those questions if we could answer a different one first..." Roxy said as they started back out the door, "What is he? After what Fox says he saw...I doubt he could be a normal animal...but he's so innocent...and shy, and..." She said as they walked down the halls.

Krystal smiled as she stopped and looked at the pink bunny, "And you like him..."

Roxy started to say something but, Krystal's paw clamped her muzzle shut, "Before you start denying it...I am a Telepath, you can lie to everyone here, and even yourself, but not me." She said letting the rabbit's muzzle loose, "...don't worry though I won't say anything. Though you probably should."

"And tell him what?" Roxy asked, "He doesn't understand common emotions..."

"Just try...you never know...hell it could be why he's so into romance movies." Krystal said breaking away from Roxy, "You never know?" She said as she headed down the hall toward the kitchen...

**-Dark Star; Bridge-**

Fox wasn't sure how late it was when he woke, it never occurred to him to ask the ship's computer...at the moment he was simply concerned with the pain in his sides...apparently sleeping in the chair wasn't the best of ideas. After painfully making his way to his feet, Fox took the object of his obsession off of the console where Krystal had placed it. To the others he seemed half alive as he staggered into the kitchen and headed to the coffee pot hoping the strong, bitter liquid would somehow manage to wake him up, Krystal seemed to be eying the small object on the table. Which the others seemed to ignore altogether, most of them just said good morning as the ship's captain walked by. As she studied it Krystal noticed Fox's new markings that were clearly put there by a marker...

"Fox why have you been marking on this fucking thing?" She asked.

Fox took a long swig from his coffee, "Start at the base of one of those lines and move your finger along it..." He limped to the table, "Hey Creed...how much longer am I gonna be limping around like this?"

The crimson furred fox yawned from his seat across the room, "No clue...you two did a number on each other. You fuck'n idiots are lucky you ain't got any broken bones really...just give it a little time, your bodies'll heal. Just enjoy what time we're here this planet's pretty nice. Wouldn't mind living here someday."

Roxy, who sat at the same table, stretched her arms over her head and winced a bit from a series of pop from her back, "This place is pretty nice...but it'd get awful lonely around here."

"Yeah you gotta point there..." Fox replied, "I lived here for the better part of two years...gets a little depressing at times. Not having anyone to relate to..."

As they were talking Krystal seemed to be obsessing over the strange light patterns on the cylinder, "I wouldn't mind coming to live here myself someday...reminds me a little of home."

Fox chuckled a bit, "How's Silver been? Haven't seen him since yesterday."

Roxy smiled, "Poor idiot studied himself half to death...sat up for almost two days straight learning whatever he could find on that laptop. I just checked on him again...he was snoring pretty damn loud."

Soon enough Krystal sat down the small device and headed out of the room...she still had trouble with the finer movements of walking and standing up too. She just needed some air...Fox thought to himself as he picked up the object and continued what he was doing last night...after all one of the paths carved into the object had to be the right one or this wouldn't make any sense at all. As he sat there toying with the small object Roxy left the room, and a bit longer Creed left to check on Krystal. Creed stepped off of the ship only to realize just how erratic the weather was on the planet, even in the summer there was a light but, comfortable rain. He found his captain sitting on a large boulder not far from the ship, the large stone were situated in a large circle. Krystal looked down to him as the large vulpine leaned against the base of her perch...

"Somethin wrong?" He asked, taking a moment to enjoy the rainfall.

"Not really...that thing that Fox found...it just reminds me of home." Krystal said looking at the sky, "It used to be right over there..." She said pointing to the northern sky, "Even in the daytime here you could have seen it."

"So Cerinia was on some kind of good terms with this place?"

"Sort of...we had very few ships on Cerinia...it was a warrior's passage to come here. Your trainers would drop you off and leave see if you could survive a full year on your own." Krystal said, "They'd even make sure to drop you in Sharpclaw territory...I was dropped her with two others when I first came...I--I was the only one that made it back..."

"Hmm...yeah that's pretty bad..."

Krystal chuckled, "Yeah...I guess it was compared to the way things are done in the rest of Lylat, it was so beautiful there though."

"Home is where you make it...it's where the heart is. As long as you keep in mind that you are home you'll always have a place to call home, even if our little group is the only type of family there is left for you...I'm happy to be part of it." Creed said as he shook the water from his fur, "You may want to head back inside pretty soon, really starting to come down."

**-4 Days later-**

Fox had lost track of time and interest in the object he'd obsessed over for the last few days...and he was far too sore to do much of anything else. All he could do at that point is count what few blessings he had and wait for his body to heal. Luckily by the fourth day both he and Krystal found it possible to walk around without being pained by their every movements, Fox at some point returned to training his two crew members, and at Creed's request Lia. Fox noticed that something had recently been bothering Krystal...but something else took place over his concern for her when he turned on the television one morning after supervising Roxy and Lia's sparring. A news report from Corneria...

The News anchor was a younger collie in a red suit, "We are sad to report that late last night, General Peppy Hare...was found collapsed outside his home outside of Corneria city. He was placed in the first district hospital for testing but, at this point no reporters have been allowed to get anywhere near the General...there have been reports of a supposed attempt on his life but, at this point these claims can only be pure speculation. The loved General however has been listed in critical condition, and his position has been filled by a replacement in the ranks until he is fully capable of continuing his duties..."

**-000-**

Krystal had been searching the entire place for Fox after hearing the news, Peppy was like a father too him after James had died, she knew he'd take the news hard. Unfortunately she could find no traces of the poor fox anywhere; she checked with Creed but her friend had seen no signs of him all day, Roxy and Lia claimed to not have seen him since their training, and Silver claimed to have seen him walking off of the ship hours ago heading north. She gathered up a few things as she began to head out of the ship's docking bay...

"Silver tell the others I went to find Fox...I'll be back in a few hours."

Silver simply nodded and watched as the blue vixen vanished into the Warpstone's grotto...where she was quickly teleported to the Krazoa Palace. As she was reassembled standing on the glowing stone altar outside the palace she shook from a cold chill that ran up and down her spine, "God I hate that feeling..." She said to herself. She didn't understand why but she knew that she would find her heartbroken friend at the top where they'd first met. She made her way floor by floor up the massive tower, finding that running the whole way she had to stop once or twice to catch her breath...but after a countless amount of time she finally made her way to the top...she actually questioned how Fox had managed to do this so many times in the process of returning the Krazoa spirits. The air on the rooftop was substantially cooler...and as she had hoped sitting there near the place where she was once suspended in her crystal prison, with the staff and cylinder nearby. He kept looking to the sky for some reason, she could feel an immense amount of depression emanating from him, which only added to what she already felt from the old hare's situation...there was a part of her that simply wanted to stand there and leave him to himself, but she knew that at this point the one thing Fox didn't need was to think that he was alone in any of this...

"Hey..." His voice startled her a bit as she hadn't moved.

"Are you alright?"

The fox's view looked down into the massive emptiness below him, "You remember when we first met up here?" He asked as she began to walk over to him, "I don't think you were even conscious at the time..." He chuckled, "...I—-I remember being lost in some sort of male delusion of all sorts of things. I remember thinking how beautiful you looked up there..." When Krystal sat at his side she could see that he'd clearly been crying, but he still laughed, "That was when that old bastard interrupted me and got my mind back on track...he was always there when I needed him...hell the old fucker was there even there when I didn't need him. I was living up here when I last talked to him...he tried to get me to go back but, I wouldn't listen...Maybe if I would have just listened to him I--I could've--done something...he was the only family I had left..."

The new tears that fell from his emerald eyes caused the same her own tears to fall as she embraced him, "It's alright Fox...you don't have to endure these things alone...we're your friends that's what we're here for...I'm sure Peppy will be fine."

Fox though still crying for Peppy missed this feeling, he hadn't been in her warm arms in over four years...but as they sat there his tears came to an instant standstill as his ears perked up to some sort of sound. He wiped the tears from his face, "You hear that? Someone's coming up the tower.."

Krystal reached out with her mind for a moment, "There are animals coming up here...and we don't know any of them...Fox they're armed."

Fox stood up and jammed the two objects he had with him into her arms then lifting her into his arms bridal style...

"You trust me right?" He quickly asked.

She made no reply...

"Krystal do you trust me!?"

"Yes..."

"Good..." He cut her off walking to the edge of the hole, "then don't scream..." He said hugging her once more.

As if he'd thought the entire thing through he released his hold on the blue vixen who shot down the shaft. He quickly turned around in time to see a mass of outfitted animals pile out into the area. All of their weapons were instantly fixed on him. From behind them a massive reptile pushed through their lines, he studied Fox for a moment then stepped aside, allowing a familiar cream colored vixen to come into view...

"This 'ere's the bloke right?" The croc asked.

"Yeah...just let me talk to him."

Fox's eyes were filled with rage simply at the sight of her...she set them up...even her own brother...

"You turned us in..." He said in disbelief, "Creed, Silver...Roxy..."

"Fox you don't understan..." Her words were cut short by the sting from Fox's paw, a slap that threw her to the stone ground.

"You're lucky you're Creed's sister...or I'd kill you right now."

The large reptile walked over and stood before Fox, "Oi...Listen 'ere mate. I got orders ta bring back what this little Sheila said was a gold staff. 'And it over..."

"Sorry...don't have it." Fox said, "Sent it away...kinda needed the money."

Without warning Fox leaped forward delivering as powerful a kick as he could muster to the crocodile's chest; the impact was halted by his massive chest and before Fox had the chance to fall he found himself hanging upside down by his ankle in the behemoth's grip.

"That..." He said rubbing his chest, "was a right fine kick mate...try one o' mine."

Still dangling upside down the last thing Fox saw was a massive boot that collided with his chest, his limp body flew from the reptile's hand skidding across the ground tumbling across the ground before coming to an unconscious stop near the ramp that led to the hole he'd dropped Krystal down...

"Get them on the ship..." A voice called from the back of the group, walking forward.

The small crowd spread out to allow him access to Sydney; the fox had long white hair that flowed down his shoulders, he wore a long white coat that looked a lot like a trench coat, his actual fur was a light blue that nearly matched Krystal's, and under the coat he wore a gray shit and pants with black boots, at his side was a long sheathed sword it's curved blade hidden by a black scabbard, it had a round golden hilt and it's handle was wrapped in white cloth, a small ribbon of white cloth was tied into the guard which flapped about in the wind...

"Alright Syler where's ma payment?" Sydney demanded.

"Head back to the compound and talk to doctor Camille...she has your pay." The fox said, "And Sydney...It's always a pleasure doing business with you." The fox laughed.

Sydney scowled before stomping toward the small group of animals, one unfortunate soul didn't move fast enough and, as the angered croc walked past he took the helmeted animal by the head and tossed him over the side of the building like a used rag doll.

Lia finally got to her feet, "Remember you said you wouldn't hurt them..."

"And I am a fox of my word..." The fox smiled as he walked away, "...after all that's what lackeys are for. Men lock her up with the others and bring the sleeping one too."

**-Undisclosed Location-**

A lone figure walks into a very elaborate office, and makes a short bow to another figure behind a large desk...

"Mister President..." The voice stated that this was clearly a female that wore a white lab coat.

"I've told you before Elyna...I don't care for formalities, call me Cornelius."

"Yes sir...I—I mean Cornelius." She said sliding a folder across his desk, "Something odd has been going on at the Beta complex in Stygian. The debt records for the fiscal year and all don't match...and every time I've attempted to approach Syler on the matter his secretary answers and will not transfer my calls to his office."

The president skimmed through the file, "Hmmm...reinstatement of the Silver Fox Program?...Project Zeta?" The figure dropped the folder, "Send Marius to keep a close eye on my young friend...since that fiasco back on Corneria, Syler hasn't been himself."

"Yes sir...I mean Cornelius..." She laughed, "I'm--sorry I'll have to work on that."

"That's fine just make sure that all of that is taken care of...Thank you Elyna."


	22. Chapter XXI

**-Chapter XXI-**

"Krazoa Palace"

She half expected the darkness to never end, but would Fox had ever done such a thing if he weren't certain that she'd survive? She slowly opened her eyes prying that it was no the afterlife that flashed before them when she woke. As she groaned waking from a staggering unconsciousness, Krystal felt the back of her head, there was a slight trace of blood; she felt around only to realize that she was in a confined space that she barely had the room to lay down in, directly next to her was a small holo-projector...and an opening. Still clutching the staff and cylinder that Fox had entrusted her with she crawled from her unknown resting place...How had she survived a ten story fall? Her questions were answered as she stepped into the halls of the large stone palace. Fox had build an escape rig for himself just in case, he always did think ahead of himself. A large cargo net was suspended at a steep angle from two pillars, and at the base of the hall she was now standing in where the old air lifts were. As she studied the area she noticed that her hiding place was perfectly hidden from out here, the projector must have been turned on when she slid into the claustrophobic space, at the wall's base...but then she realized why he'd done it...

"Fox!"

She reached out with her mind searching for any of her friends, but she could feel none of their minds at all, not even Fox's powerful defenses against her ability...just the thought pattern of two nearby animals, so she dove a bit deeper only to find to her horror that they had all been taken by Omni...spare one...her. She looked to the staff in her hands...Fox had sounded so sad before he dropped her...like...he thought they may never see each other again. The thought of her friends being dead did not bode well on her already delicate psyche...She didn't know if she could help but regardless she was going to try. It took the blue vixen little time to make her way back to the place where the Dark Star still stood. Two fully armored animals stood nearby patrolling the area...they both carried plasma rifles and wore head to toe shiny black armor...

She sat there reading their minds until she heard something that gave her an opening..._I'll be right back man...I gotta take a leak..._one of the two animals walked toward their small ship and vanished inside. Krystal situated the small cylinder to her belt, then extended her old staff to it's full length, originally the thing was meant to be some sort of fighting staff or something, she'd noticed long ago that for some reason the small spearhead shaped piece at it's bottom end was always sharp...good thing to now was a good time to have more than one weapon...one end for blasting the other for slashing. She rushed down the small hillside as soon as the remaining animal's back was turned, he turned to face her as soon as he heard the sound of the small stones that rolled beside her...he was too late however. The spear-like tip of the staff few into his visor like a javelin exiting the back of his skull. It was this commotion that caused the second animal to rush out of the ship, unfortunately Krystal's attack had lodged the staff into the animal's helmet making it nearly impossible to retrieve it. As he took aim Krystal tuned the staff to face the still living animal and used as much energy as she could muster...the bolt of red light and flame that shot from the end of the staff was fiercely powerful as it tore away helmet flesh and bone upon slamming into the animal's face mask...the only remnants of his head being the jaw that barely held into place as the wound fountained blood into the air as he fell to the ground. She wrenched the staff loose of the first animal's face, and cringed a bit as the suddenly unplugged wound spat a healthy dose of blood and refusal matter in her face...

She looked to the Dark Star then to these poor animals's ship, "I'll leave Fox's ship here...I just hope I can find out where they're headed..."

She had an idea on how to get where they were headed however. She boarded their ship and headed to the bridge...

"Computer...this ship's crew is down...send out an emergency to HQ..."

A minute or so went by before a robotic monotone voice came from the speakers overhead, "Emergency distress call answered...emergency aid will arrive in 3.654 hours."

She then walked out onto the planet's surface, "I hope you're all okay..." She said looking to the sky, "...I'll be there as soon as possible."

* * *

**-Beta Complex-**

Fox woke up with a bad feeling...he was surrounded by walls of steel, a prison cell, a rather large one, as he stood up he noticed that the room was only build to accommodate one prisoner, but, there was an unconscious Silver on the floor. There was a sink, toilet, and a single bed with an incredibly thin blanket. He looked around and noticed that there were no bars to the door, rather it was a screen of light red flickering light. He could tell by the humming sound that it emitted that there was no way he was about to touch it. As he took a seat to clear his thoughts he groaned placing a paw on his aching head...

"Why the fuck do people keep hitting me so fucking hard?"

Creed's voice came from the wall across from him, "Fox? You finally awake?"

"Ung...I think so...am I supposed to be in a prison cell?"

"Unfortunately...Hey they took Silver while you were out...is he back in there with you?"

"Yeah...but he's out." Fox said checking on the poor silver fox, "You alright?..."

Creed's voice came back, "I've been worse...they removed the pneumatic inhibitor relays from my arms though...couldn't punch my way through a paper bag right now."

"What about the girls?" Fox asked. He was a bit startled by a voice from the other wall.

"We're okay...I think..." It was Roxy's voice, "I just woke up, Lia's still out though."

"As long as you two are alright..."

Fox could hear Roxy rustling around for a moment, "We'll be fine...but where's Krys?"

"She's somewhere safe...I hope..."

* * *

**-Sauria-**

Krystal had in her eyes waited far too long for the ship that she had sent for...of course she had to reposition the bodies that she'd left behind so that the ones from the other ship would think it was an attack or something. She'd already taken one of the spare cloaking devices from the Dark Star, she had to admit that it wasn't the most full proof plan she'd ever thought of but...it should work...after all she had no clue where they were keeping Fox and the others. As the almost identical ship to the one the other two had landed she watched from her hidden position under the Dark Star, still under the cloaking device's invisibility...as soon as it was clear she ran into the docking bay of the ship and looked for a place to hide...she wasn't stupid though, she'd learned from Fox on some mission when it was necessary to hid, you should try to find somewhere nice and comfortable because you could never tell how long you could be there. She looked for just under an hour until she took a page out of the vulpine's book and went for the ac ducts...and when the cool breeze on the inside of the small metal structures hit her she could instantly see why Fox had always been so fond of these drearily tight spaces...it was sublimely comfortable. And as soon as she found a safe place from anyone's sight she soon found herself dozing off...

Her dreams were filled with images from her past...she had a hard time telling whether the visions were real or delusion, that is until she woke. The ship jolted as it exited hyperspace, she'd only been asleep for about three hours but it felt like a lot longer. She made her way through the small ducts as stealthily as if she weren't even there, and stopped a short distance from vent leading into the bridge happy to hear what she heard...

"This is Wild Card...2354. Captain Troy Rorick...requesting clearance to dock with Beta Complex dock 36-B. We have two dead aboard, recovered from planet Sauria..."

"This is April...nice to see ya back Troy. Syler wants to see you as soon as you get back for a debriefing and to issue your team a new mission."

The one named Troy sighed, "Alright but you owe me..."

"And why is that?" This April girl asked over the intercom with a light giggle.

"Aww...come on April...You know I'm only doing this work cuz you asked me."

"So what's you're price handsome?"

"Dinner before I leave the Complex?"

The girl laughed lightly, "I'll see you at seven Troy."

Krystal smiled, she found the scene to be a bit on the cute side...but now wasn't the time for mushy sentiment. She made her way into the docking bay of the small ship as soon as it landed and activated her cloaking mask...luckily her nap gave it time to recharge. She waited for the ship's small crew to disembark and followed narrowly behind them for a short time. She found herself in a docking station, the kind you'd expect to find in a major city. She followed the small group this time from a greater distance; the walls in the massive halls were a off white color and seemed to be made of some sort of ultra hard plastic that sat over the top of the metal construct of the place there were small viewing windows along the outer walls giving her a perfect scope of the stars along with a small red planet in the distance. She made her way down the long halls, every so often she'd see an animal in a lab coat walk by but just when she wondered it she would ever find where they were two animals walked by carrying on an unusual conversation...she followed while listening...

"Wow that guy from Sauria was big..."

"Yeah...did you remember to take those chips out of his arms?"

"Yeah I left 'em with Carl on the sixth floor so I could file 'em later. Why didn't they just take the fucking arms off?"

"Because it would probably kill him you moron...Jesus Christ don't they teach you guys anything on Kew?"

"How ta survive that's...pretty much about it."

"You got their next food detail right?"

"Yeah...uh...what cells where they in again?"

"This is the last time...they're on the 38th floor cell block E...Try to remember that this time."

"Yeah Yeah Yeah...see ya later Mike."

Krystal, now with a destination, headed down the hall the two had come from figuring she'd find some sort of elevator...she found one some ways down the long winding halls. She waited before boarding the small lift for someone that needed to go to the different floors. She decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea to try finding this Carl person on the sixth floor since the elevator seemed to be headed in that direction. She didn't have much experience controlling the minds of others but the brown furred squirrel that was now oblivious to her presence was a good way to go. His stare went blank as their minds became one kicking the squirrel's consciousness offline temporarily. She could see her way around the entire station in this scientist's mind...his knowledge of the place seemed like a good tid bit of info to pull into her own mind...Krystal kept half of her focus toward walking and the other half toward controlling her new puppet. As she and her new toy passed a rather attractive female raccoon, she found herself watching the animal's tail...she was a bit angry that part of his personality was still fresh in there with her...looking at another girl's ass made her feel dirty. She shook the feeling and headed into what appeared to be the worst kept office she'd ever seen; books and paperwork were stacked everywhere, there was a slight glimpse of a desk beneath some of the paperwork but she wasn't sure...could have been some sort of computer terminal...

"What!!" A rather rude voice called from somewhere in the pile.

"Kai sent me to pick up those parts from that big fucker in the holding cells..." Krystal spoke through the puppet squirrel.

"Yes yes...the inhibitor relays are over there on my desk...I am absurdly busy if you do not mind."

"Thanks...I'll get out of your hair then." Krystal had some practice...she used to love playing around with Falco, nothing too harmful, just interrupt his mind in the middle of a shower and leave him on the bridge naked running for cover.

She looked about the mess on Carl's desk, what she found was the only thing that seemed out of place, a small plastic zipper bag, with two small round metal objects inside, the entire bag seemed to vanish into thin air as she slid it into her pocket. Upon having what she'd come down here for she and her puppet walked back down the halls until an unfamiliar animal seemed to be hailing him over to talk...Krystal quickly released her hold on him and rushed off. It was as she boarded the elevator by herself this time that she felt a small vibration from her cloaking mask...a warning that it was running out of energy. She took a moment then leaped up through the service hatch at the top of the elevator then climbed into a nearby vent shaft. Luckily now thanks to that puppet and what she'd extracted from his mind she could now find her way around and soon she was looking at the vent maintenance shaft; this shaft led straight up in what looked like a latter of endless rungs that went on further than she could see...

"Ohhhh..." She whined to herself, "That is a lot of fucking climbing. You assholes better appreciate this." And with that she started climbing.

* * *

**-38th floor Cell Block E-**

Luckily at one point Silver had woken up, but, to Fox's dismay he could not recall what they had done to him...Fox simply made sure the poor vulpine ate something, he seemed incredibly depressed about something, something they'd said or done to him had upset him terribly. It was as Fox sat there trying to console the terminally depressed fox that two heavily armd guards came to the cell he was in. They turned down the light screen and making sure to keep their guns on Silver called Fox out...

"Syler wants to talk to you...You gonna come quietly?" One of them asked.

Fox's lips moved but before he could say anything a voice cut him off as Syler himself entered the room, "Of course he will. You two go take a break or something."

"Yes sir...thank you sir." The two said together before exiting the room.

"You're a Cerinian?"

Syler took a look at his blue fur, "Yes I have that look don't I? Either way follow me."

Syler turned and headed out of the room and Fox turned to Creed whom nodded in his direction. Fox followed behind the white suited Cerinian down several halls until he finally came to a massive open room; the entirety of the room scaled straight up, the rounded wall before Fox was one large lattice work of windows, all types of animals seemed to walk around this room, some chatted amongst themselves, others simply walked by taking random bites out of food while looking over documents on clipboards, while others just lay back having a smoke and a cup of coffee. Syler motioned Fox toward a large round elevator made of glass that began to very slowly scale the walls as soon as they entered it. Syler leaned his paw against their glass carriage...

"Do you know what it is that separates us from them Scar?" He asked. Fox wasn't surprised that he knew the name, "Or would you prefer Fox?"

Fox scowled as he half-thought about pushing the nut through the glass, "Scar is fine..."

"It's power that separate us from them you know?" The blue fox continued, "We...we could simply kill any number of them right now. You see THAT is true power...holding the lives of the masses in the palm of your paw. We could end their meaningless lives in a moment's notice but, we simply choose not to...and after all that it what make you and I so similar."

"We are nothing alike..." Fox growled, "You kidnap my crew, my friends, and kill innocent people. You're as bad as Andross ever was."

"Oh you see now you're just trying to flatter me..." Syler said turning to Fox and leaning against the wall of the elevator, "...Andross was, or is a great visionary...unfortunately his plans had their flaws, after all why destroy the Lylat system in the sake of revenge...when you can simply control it...after all death it a sweet retribution but, nothing give you a better feeling then watching them suffer." The blue fox smiled.

"No...you're worse than Andross, you're completely insane...out of your mind."

Syler laughed out loud, "Perhaps...then again we all show a few signs of being a bit crazed...what kind of animal can you tell me looses a loved one and simply begins to give his entire life away in a last ditch effort to win her back. Huh...love..." He scoffed, "If there ever was such a thing."

The elevator stopped and Syler led Fox down another hall to an empty but massive office; it was a massive office, several large plants decorated the area, pictures, a large black lacquered desk, a small leather sofa, water cooler...it was an office alright. The AC was on in here and Fox could detect a light hint of an all too familiar smell, it was barely there but enough for him to cut his eyes at the ac vent before walking to one of the empty seats that Syler pointed out from behind his desk...There was a long silence as the blue one sat his sword on the desk and poured himself a small drink...

"You know what it is however that separates us?" He asked taking a sip from his drink, "I am not afraid to kill for what it is I want. We used to know each other you know...Your mother and I, her name was Vixy wasn't it? Magnificent creature...never should have been one so beautiful that got into that car..."

Fox's jaw hung a bit open, "It was you...you did it."

"Unfortunately yes. I was the one Andross sent to plant that bomb. Odd waste of recourses when he could have sent any number of men to wipe James out. Fox did you ever wonder where it is your mother came from that would give her such a ruined childhood?" Syler asked quickly changing the subject, "Surely you noticed how different she was from all the other vixens you've seen in your life...she was one of us fox..." Syler smiled, "A Creinian...a very special one...the white furred females were thought to be born pure...hence the pureness of their fur and as such were treated like royalty...they were taken upon the tribes there as priestesses. She was young when she began her training as a priestess, her father was the village war chief got himself killed."

"You're lying...my mother couldn't have been a Cerinian." Fox cut him off.

"Oh really...?" Syler scoffed, "How do you explain that uncanny ability of yours? Even a powerful telepath like myself can't see past your defenses. She was incredibly powerful as well but, she refrained from using her abilities...said it wasn't right prying into the minds of others, that it was taking away their given rights as living things. I of course approached her when we were all of age...she rejected me claiming that she had to uphold the priestess order. Then he came along..." Syler scowled, "Some brash young fox that wasn't Cerinian at all. Vixy carried him back to the village from where he'd collapsed...She spent a lot of time nursing him back to health. Even after he was healed James refused to leave, oddly enough the chief...Krystal's father seemed to have no problems with him staying. Until he found out however...about them. It was forbidden by death for a priestess to fall in love. When James heard that they were going to kill her he took Vixy and left, she didn't hesitate for one moment to run away from her own home world for that...person."

Fox had always thought his mother was different, she had always refused to tell him anything about her home and his father refused the same. It also explained several other things about his past; when his mother had died, he was with Falco at that powerball game, and started crying for absolutely no reason, over an hour before he had even heard the news. It just hit him as he sat there with his friends, something felt as though it was torn from his heart in an instant. He tried to hide the fact from everyone but, the same thing happened the day his father left and never came back...

"I can see it in your eyes..." Syler said, "You're beginning to realize the truth, certain things in your past that never made any sense finally beginning to. If it makes you feel any better you are most likely the most powerful psychic I have ever known. The sheer force of your latent mental power alone is enough to even block out me...I've never heard of a psychic energy so powerful that it alone will defend it owner. It's possible that your ability is so great that it simply cannot be fully used and therefore simply comes out on it's own at times it is needed. Andross did an investigative study on Parapsychic Phenomenon shortly after finding me...He discovered that they were rare outside of Cerinian culture but, he found enough people to make his research complete...and in some cases the person is so afraid of themselves that they lock away their own abilities...while others just find they simply cannot believe that they have such power and lock it away without even knowing it. You see I have what was referred to in Andross's study as a Class 5 psyche...and this is on a scale of 1 to 5...so for you to block out my telepathy I would hate to have to guess at the level in which your is, but I wouldn't be going too far to say that you have escalated to a level high above 5...perhaps even a 10...but we are getting off of subject here..." Syler said, "You had with you a staff...a golden one with strange carvings all about the shaft, jeweled fittings on both ends, you know the one..."

"What about it?" Fox asked still trying to grasp what he'd been told.

"It has...merit...toward the future."

"What future?"

"Scar let me fill you in on something...We Cerinians did not simply appear the way we are. We were once like those friends of yours back on the brig...but as the ages passed and our technology grew we evolved somehow..." Syler said standing up and looking out the window behind him, "Perhaps it was natural selection...then again maybe our ancestors did something they shouldn't have but, one way or another we were and are the future. We pertain to a power these common creatures couldn't possibly comprehend...and as soon as I have the staff they will know what the future holds for them all. You've seen what the boy can do...he is the perfect Cerinian. Purely and genetically engineered form my own DNA...unfortunately even we Cerinians are not perfect we are flawed in our own ways...such impurities needed to be removed; he is the perfect mixture of DNA, strength like a Luxonian, the cunning and stealth of a fox, with the mind of a Cerinian, plus there is a bit of biomechanics in there as well. Soon enough I'll have an entire fleet of those soldiers at my disposal and since Corneria and Katina are so busy fighting amongst themselves they won't even notice when the staff is completed and their entire little world comes crashing down around them..."

"You really are out of your mind..."

Without a moment's notice Fox snatched the sword on the table from it's sheath and flew at the blue fox...but Syler turned to face him and the sheer weight of the gaze that fell upon Fox send him back into the desk where he became pinned with the sword's blade held to his throat...

"I thought we could work together on this...we are after all bother Cerinian...but, instead I think I'll recruit that lovely young Cerinian vixen instead...and don't worry about it I'll take good care of her...I may even let her take good care of me...what good's the ruler of an entire galaxy without a bride hmmm?" Syler chuckled sickly, "Men get this thing out of my sight!" After yelling this two large animals walked into the office and drug Fox away.

As they drug Fox away a familiar voice came through Syler's office intercom, "Sir I just got the results form our scan on Number-13..."

"Lets hear it Camille..."

Syler's scream of anger was heard throughout every corner of the Complex as his desk slammed through his office doors landing in the hall in a mass of broken debris. There was a look of absolute outrage on his face...

"Camille...Prep phase 2 of Project Zeta." He said taking a deep breath, "I need some fresh air...and while you're at it dip into the company penchant and order me a new desk."

Camille's voice came back over the intercom, "...(sigh)...Yes sir."

* * *

**AN: WOW...chapter 21. that's the longest fic I've written so far. I hope at you like the chapter though...R&R and I'll see you when I post ch 22...be ready fer some fight'n...lots of it...  
**


	23. Chapter XXII

**(AN:Happily this turned out to be one long f'n chapter...then again I drank a six pack of Starbucks cold double shots so...I've been typing all night cuz I got nothing to do tomorrow. Don't forget to R&R people...Thanx fer the support...)**

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Recommended music

Soilwork-Wherever thorns may grow or Exile

if'n ya like your metal heavy they'll fit the bill...

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**-Chapter XXII-**

-38th floor vent shaft-

Krystal pulled herself into the open shaft happier and happier that the AC was blowing through her fur. She sat in that terribly cramped space panting heavily, while she lay her body against the cold metal of the air ducts...

"Never...ever...wanna...see another...ladder." She said between labored breaths.

As she lay there letting the burning in her arms and shoulders subside she reached out with her mind...

"_Creed? Can you hear me?"_

"_Oh my god. Don't tell me your stupid ass is somewhere on this base." _Was his mental reply.

"_Well then, with a thank you like that...I don't really think you want these modules for your arms back."_

"_You got the inhibitor relays?"_

"_I think that's what he called 'em. What the fuck do they do?"_

"_They regulate the pneumatics in my arms. Without those relays I can't get any more that 50 psi out of these things."_

Krystal pulled out the bag and looked at the tiny pieces inside, _"You telling me that these little things are what give you all that strength?"_

"_Huh...Yeah pretty fucking ironic ain't it?"_

"_Yeah...is everyone else in there?"_

"_Yeah...but something's been wrong with Fox since they brought him back. He hasn't said a word."_

Krystal redirected the focus of her thoughts, _"Fox? Fox are you alright? FOX!?"_

Even the voice in his mind seemed heavy._"They didn't even trust me enough to tell me themselves..." _

Krystal began to say something but he cut her off...

"_What are you doing here?" _

"_I'm here to get you all out of here..."_

"_Then you might wanna do it fast...Syler sounded pretty fucking pissed when they were dragging my worthless ass back here...but if you can get those things to Creed first. We gotta wait for them to bring the girls back...That way when it's time for them to question Creed he can give 'em a nice surprise..."_

"_Are there any guards in there?"_

"_Not in here...they wait outside the door...Look Kyrs...did you know too?"_

"_Know what?"_ She replied.

Fox chuckled, _"Forget it that was a good enough answer for me."_

Krystal slung through the vents until she found the spot where her friends's mental readings were the strongest and with her cloaking device turned back on slowly stuck her head out of the vent she'd come to. There was a desk just below her and across from that where what appeared to be three cells, each with a flickering screen of light instead of bars, she slowly let herself down onto the desk then to the floor. Her footsteps seemed to attract Creed's attention as she approached his cell. She looked around, the opening to the cell was pretty large, but just to the side of the light screen near the door was a small service compartment for delivering the prisoner's meals. To avoid any sort of cameras seeing her she dropped the bag to the ground and covered it with her foot which hid the bag from sight then slid her foot and all under the small swinging door...

"Is that them?" She whispered.

Creed snatched up the small bag and made his way to the back of his cell where he fidgeted around for a moment, "Yeah these are them. God that feels better...it'll take an hour or two before I can use 'em at full power again though."

Krystal moved to the next cell, "Fox?"

"Hey..." He feigned a smile as best he could, "...I'd say it's nice ta see you're okay but...you know..."

"The invisibility thing yeah...It may sound weird but, thanks for dropping me down that hole."

"Anytime..." That time he did smile.

"I'm not so sure I like the sound of that..." Krystal replied with a short sided giggle, "What's up with him?"

Fox looked to Silver who was still studying the floor, he hadn't moved from that position in hours, "I don't know...he won't say anything. I think Syler might have told him the truth..."

"What truth?"

"That he's some sort of advanced clone of some kind...that his entire existence was constructed right here in this space station."

Silver finally looked toward the wall across from him, "I--what I did on Zentarii...That was the real me wasn't it?"

Krystal looked to Silver, "Listen I don't know what it is they convinced you that you are but, they are wrong..."

"Yeah. What you did on Zentarii you did to help me..." Fox said resting his paw on the silver vulpine's shoulder, "...so clearly you aren't the killer he was hoping for...otherwise you'd be out there and not in here with us."

"Silver...whatever you did to save Fox...nobody told you to do it. You acted on your own...what was going through your head when you attacked the one that hurt Fox?" Krystal asked.

"I--I just wanted to help my friend."

"Like I said...your choice...not theirs...your origins obviously don't matter. Cuz as far as I'm concerned you're still my friend..." The invisible vixen said...

"Same here..." Fox added.

"Ditto." Creed said from the other side of the wall, "And we haven't even known each other that long. Ya kinda have that effect on people kid."

Krystal headed back to her hiding place, "Whatever they told you in there...Just don't give it any thought at all, cuz it was all bullshit..."

* * *

**-000-**

Krystal slid back into her hiding place where she waited, and to pass the time, she began to finish what Fox had started with the small cylinder. Going over the few remaining lines until she finally heard Roxy's voice then Lia's as they were tossed back into their cell. Then she heard the guards, "We'll be back for you big guy...Syler wanted to save you for last."_ Wow are those two in for a surprise when they come back,_ Krystal thought to herself before going back to work on the small cylinder. About another hour passed before she heard the two come back, this was just as her finger had made a sold track from one side of the device to the other. It was strange, as the two caps fell off the ends it looked like the inside was some kind of crystal, and at one end there was a familiarly shaped crevice...it matched the shape of the end of her staff. Like any curious fox she lined up the headpiece of the staff and slid it into the small hole, it fit flawlessly, until she heard the click. The sides of the cylinder folded downward like a budding flower revealing the center crystal. She cried out as she was blinded by an intense light...

As Creed noticed this light so too did the two soldiers that noticed an intense light emanating from the vent. One of them lifted his rifle to eye level and began to approach the vent where Krystal was hiding. Creed searched his cell but there was only a small metal tray that passed off as a plate for his food. He quickly snatched up the tray and clutched it like a Frisbee...

"Hey! Asshole!"

The guard approaching the mysterious light turned just in time to see the now lethal projectile sore at an ungodly speed through the screen of light. Had Creed touched it he'd have been electrocuted but, the small, metal tray launched by his pneumatic arms became nothing short of a flying blade. The wolf opened his mouth to scream but unfortunately the discus of death was slightly faster, which tore into his mouth and into the wall behind him with a massive metallic thud. The wolf's eyes blinked once of twice as the upper half of his head was suspend on the tray lodged in the wall like a trophy on some sort of shelf, as the rest of his body fell to the ground the ghastly wound showering the nearby wall with blood. Before the other guard had the time to react Creed sunk his once again powerful clutches into the wall near the edge of the light screen and bent it outward until it blocked the path of light...the screen flickered for a second and Creed noticed the other guard running down the hall. Without a second thought Creed lifted the dead guard's rifle and hurled it at the retreating one, the rifle's extended barrel pierced the poor creature's skull mere feet from the door. Creed then walked to Fox's cell, and where it was meant to be opened by key card he jammed his claws into the small panel resulting in the disappearance of the screen of light, Fox's fist move was to relinquish the weapon buried in the dead soldier's head down the hall, as well as the one that lay at his side then he returned to the others tossing a rifle, she grimaced at the sight of the thick red matter covering the barrel...

"What the fuck is this?" She asked pointing to the end of her weapon.

"That is called the barrel..." Fox said sarcastically tapping his finger to the trigger of his, "And this happy little fella is called a trigger."

"This is hardly the proper time for jokes Scar..."

"Can't see why not...after all you can't spell slaughter without laughter." He said peeking out the door, "I think somebody heard a small part of that. Krys you want to get your ass out here?"

The blue vixen eventually climbed out onto the desk and to the ground, "I'm sorry I don't know what happened." She said.

"That's okay we were headed out of here anyway right everyone?"

"You kidding me? I hate cages." Creed replied.

As soon as the door to the room opened the animals heading inside were mowed down by a hail of plasma, the deep purple bolts of energy tearing thorough whatever unfortunate animal they hit. Fox stepped out and tossed Krystal, Silver, and Lia a weapon...Creep picked up his own on his way out..

"I thought you didn't like guns..." Fox said as they all followed Krystal down the halls.

"Given our current situation I think it's a necessity." Creed replied firing a few times over his shoulder as several animals on their tails.

Krystal stopped for a few seconds while the others held off the advancing animals down the hall. Creed noticing that there were far too many, handed his weapon to Fox who then began firing both...he caught on to Creed's plan as the metal armed fox the blast proof door to a nearby room ripping it completely out of the wall, then moved to the front of the group. The door was wide enough to give the others cover as long as they stayed behind Creed, which they did popping out to either side randomly to fire at the enemies. And after a moment the were all inside a large stairwell...

"Krys how many floors?" Fox asked as he and Creed held the door shut.

"28 the docking station is on the 10th."

Before heading down the stairs Creed took his makeshift shield and wedged it into the space where the door to the stairs slid into the wall. Creed kept an ear out and an eye on the upstairs...among the loud siren that was now blaring off and the red flashing lights he wasn't sure whether or not anyone was coming. It seemed like the torrent of stairs would never end before they finally made it to the 10th floor...but Krystal brought the small company to a halt before they reached the door...

"What's wrong?" Fox asked moving to Krystal's side.

"The entire hall past that wall is full of them...they're waiting for us."

"Creed think you can buy us some room?"

Creed rolled his neck a bit, "I ain't got much cash...but lets see it they won't take an IOU."

Creed walked a small ways down the next flight of stairs and took a few deep breaths...before Fox could think of what he might be doing...Creed rushed toward the door like a runaway truck, the door dented inward as his speeding mass slammed into the blast door with merciless force, at the frightening sound and sight of the door threatening to burst violently toward them the soldiers on the opposite side opened fire. Creed hit the door again the dent swelled, and he moved back down the stairs.

"This time get behind me I felt it move that time."

"Wait when that door comes down wont we just be open targets?" Roxy asked.

"Trust me...when that door comes down it they aren't out of the way they will be." Creed replied.

Creed took a long breath and rushed the door one last time. On impact it burst from the wall, but stayed with the titan as he rampaged down the hall...any animal unfortunate enough to still be in his way was plowed into the walls or to the floor. The rest of the small group rushing in behind him shooting any that were left standing. Not many were dead from the speeding charge down the hall but, those that weren't were left unconscious from their impact against the mobile wall, or mangled from the small group that was smart enough to turn and run...at least it would have been smart accept for the group that tried to summon an elevator at the end of the hall, as it was their bodies and the wall they were messily driven into that provided enough force to stop Creed's advance. As the hall was cleared out Krystal led then down the hall where Creed took a moment to catch his breath, that had taken a lot out of him...

Fox patted the half exhausted vulpine on the shoulder, "Have I told you yet how much I love you?" Fox asked sarcastically.

"Yeah Yeah Yeah. You can kiss my ass later lets go already." Creed said as he headed out to follow their blue guide.

The halls were hectic...there were small platoons of men around nearly every corner but, to their luck it seemed that most of them were amateurs...just measly scientists with guns. Compared to a group that had actual battle experience...they were push overs. They soon found themselves near the doors to the hanger where yet again Krystal stopped the group but this time with a confused look on her face...

"What more men?" Fox asked as he tossed his spent weapon aside and relinquished one from a nearby raccoon with a large hole in his face.

"No that's just it...wouldn't they protect the hangers. I only sense two people in there..."

"Alright then...Creed and I'll go first...you all follow behind us. If things get ugly get on a ship and get the fuck out of here."

Fox and Creed headed into the massive hanger, ships were lined up by the hundreds...not far away near a small transport ship two familiar figures stood...one blue furred fox in white, and one large crocodile. Krystal and the others rushed in behind them, Krystal was stunned at the sight of Syler...she'd thought she was the last Cerinian left...

"He--he's a Cerinian..."

"That's right Krystal...you aren't alone anymore." Syler replied.

Krystal took a look into the deep blue eyes that hid behind his devious grin, she moved closer to Fox, "You're right I'm not."

"Hmmm..." He sighed, "What you see in him I'll never know...but given time I think you may change your mind. For now I'll simply take the staff...by force if necessary."

"Trust me freak..." Fox said readying himself for a fight, "The only way you'll lay a hand on any of my friends is by going through me."

Syler pulled his curved bladed sword, "A menial task easily subjugated..."

The Cerinian charged Fox with an impressive speed which gave Fox only a moment's notice to dodge the slash from his blade; several stings struck Syler's side as Fox spun to a reversed position behind him. Syler brought his paw from his side to see that it was trounced with blood. He looked to Fox and smiled at what he saw...a long black combat knife held in a reversed fashion jutted form the determined fox's paw...

Syler laughed, "So there is quite a bite behind that bark of yours."

"Don't count your blessings yet..." Fox growled,"Cuz you're about to learn first hand just how bad my bite can be!" Fox yelled as he rushed the blue furred fox.

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**-000-**

While the two foxes were busy familiarizing themselves with one another Creed smashed the control panel to the blast door which slammed shut forbidding all entry to the area. He stopped near Roxy and Lia long enough to tell them to get to a ship and hide before dropping his gun and approaching his relative equal in size, Sydney didn't seem to care at all for what was happening with Fox and Syler rather he removed the large knife he carried from it's sheath and tossed it aside, followed by his vest and his hat. He didn't seem too happy with this situation at all...

Creed tossed his coat aside, "What's the matter lizard boy?"

"You blokes never should'a messed with Omni...Personally I could do without hurt'n any o' you blokes, but I hardly 'ave a say in this."

"Then why fight us?" Creed asked stretching his back.

"It's a complicated matter mate..." The reptile replied cracking his knuckles, "On the ups though...you seem like the type that enjoys a good scrap so, this may be fun."

Creed simply smirked at the croc before the two lunged out at one another, their fingers interlocked an the two were forced into trying their hardest to force the other off his ground. Creed had never known anyone so strong his arms where at full strength and the two were evenly matched, he smiled when he noticed that Sydney was having the same difficulty but was surprised at what his opponent did next...

"You got a title under all that muscle mate?" The croc asked forcing Creed back a bit. He was enjoying this.

"Creed and you?" Creed responded with a strenuous growl as he reclaimed the ground he'd lost.

Sydney grunted as he was pushed a bit further back, "Name's...Sydney mate."

"Don't...get me...wrong. It's always...nice to meet new people but...you gotta admit that...carrying on a conversation in the middle of a fight is a bit unorthodox." Creed said as he was forced back again, there was now sweat pouring down both of their faces from the massive strain.

"Too right..." Sydney growled forcing Creed back a bit more, "...but fight or no...don't see why we can't be...civil about this."

For a few moments the two went silent before they both pushed off of each other at the same time, both slid back a bit before they both came to a rest both seeming to have rather similar fighting stances. For a short time they simply stood off, until Sydney's arms went to rest at his sides...

"Call that one a draw mate?"

"I don't know..." Creed smiled, he was beginning to enjoy this himself, "...I think I got a few inches on ya."

Sydney chuckled, "Oi...I think yer right,So you got any feelin in those things?"

"Yeah some...not much thought, the nerves are half dead after all."

Sydney took a seat on a nearby crate to catch his breath, "Got a dodgey knee meself...Ah an' don't hold too much on the one that turned ya in, she didn't 'ave much o' a choice on the matter. They were gonna kill her. When ya life's on the line...ya do some right awful shit mate."

Creed took this moment to sit for himself, "That's a GIGAS on your neck isn't it?"

"Sound about right." Sydney said scratching at it a bit, "That fuck over there got it round me neck some time back. I got a son back on Argon, an' his mum's dead so...I'm all the boy's got left..."

"If I find a way to get that remote away from him I will..." Creed said standing up.

"I'd appreciate that Creed...but that bloke ain't right. I seriously doubt that McCloud fella's gonna live through that fight."

"Sydney...if there's one thing I've learned about that fox...it's that the only thing you don't want to do besides underestimate him, " Creed said turning his glance toward Krystal, "Is to threaten her...You can doubt all you want but by the time that fight it over, the blue boy's gonna regret it."

With that Sydney stood back up to join Creed, "I hope you're right mate..." Sydney took his stance, "Now where were we?"

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**-000-**

Fox and Syler circled about one another, both had suffered multiple cuts from the other's weapon. Fox had a badly bleeding slack across his chest, Syler's was just across his gut, both had minor other cuts here and there. As they faced off Krystal had no other choice but to watch, she that if she got in the way Fox would do everything in his power to protect her. As she watched on the two lunged at one another, Fox somehow managing to block the sword strikes with something roughly the length of a small dagger she could tell that this was not all going to last. Fox fought off strike after lethal strike...but to the dismay of the vixen that watched on her fears were correct, a short series of strikes set of Fox's guard. Syler's sword hilted itself passing through Fox's shoulder, a powerful blast of telekinetic energy afterward sent Fox into a nearby wall where the sword pinned him down. Then Syler turned to the teary eyed vixen who just watched her friend become, as far as she knew, mortally wounded...

"Now then let's have that staff..." The blue fox said as he slowly walked toward her with an outstretched paw.

He quickly reached out and took Krystal by the wrist, "I WILL have that staff."

As the determined Cerinian he could hear the faintest voice, "Leave...her...alone."

Syler turned his head toward the hanging fox, "My My My...Scar. Was that you? I've got to say...that bite of yours is still going isn't it? Well stick around for a bit, I may just find use for you yet...but you..." Syler's words were cut off by Krystal's fist which painfully struck his jaw, "You worthless bitch!!" The angered fox drew back his fist but the voice came again in a way that even frightened Krystal...

Fox's voice seemed to echo even in the room full of sound proofing, "LEAVE...HER...ALONE!!" His tone grew with each syllable until there was a bizarre sound that turned Syler's attention to the ship to his left.

He watched in horror as the entire left side of the small transport gave in on itself as if some sort of invisible giant had just stomped on it. The sound of the unseen impact made the Cerinian's heart skip. He turned back to watch his sword freely exit Fox's shoulder all of it's own apparent will and turn jolting toward him in a blaze of speed, though the shot was dodged the blade took with it the tip of his right ear. He still looked on Fox's eyes were no longer present with color, only blue remained, a light blue aura seemed to waver about his body like fire, which propelled him above the ground. As Fox's feet touched the ground the shards of broken glass, and metal, and screws, and other small pieces of refuse began to float as they were all caught in the power that flowed around him, his steps seemed to leave an impression in the very steel floor he walked upon and each step he took carried with it a damnable sound. Syler recovered his sword from where it was lodged into the metal ground and despite all that he saw charged Fox slashing a new wound into the vulpine's chest which crossed the first. Syler's face turned to a look of total fear as his arms seemed to motion his own sword and plow it through his own gut, the snarl that seemed to cross Fox's face was nothing short of a nightmare and as he let out a hellbent scream Syler's now limp body launched into the air flying several rows of ships over before sliding across the top of one and falling to the unforgiving metal floor. Krystal tried to get Fox's attention several times but her words fell on deaf ears. His enraged expression held as his body lifted slightly from the ground, and Fox began to let out a scream that forced the entire space station to quake. Everyone aboard the Complex could hear and feel the fury behind the power Fox was emitting...And soon the unthinkable began too happen. The walls of the hanger began to move inward, from outside one could see the entire structure of the large station beginning to collapse on top of itself...Fox's assault continued. Wave after wave of energy seemed to escape him pushing everything away and pulling it in all at once. Sydney and Creed had stopped fighting long ago when this spectacle had begun...Sydney of course took this time to remove the controller that Syler once had from his body's possession. Krystal was at the time trying desperately to make it to Fox; she made very little ground as she was pelted by screws and loose bolts and small shards of class that slashed at her skin...she didn't know how she was going to stop him or even if she could but she had to try...he'd have done the same thing for her...

As Krystal fought her way slowly toward Fox she could barely hear a voice carrying through the PA system, "Total evacuation of Beta Complex in progress...massive structural damage to all sectors of the Complex...hull breaches in sectors; 12, 47, 110, 38, 56, 89, 97..." The list kept going, "...primary and secondary power sources offline, life support systems at critical failure, orbital centrifuge offline, imminent collision with Varta-7...Repeat: we are under a total evacuation procedure, all personnel are to report to the nearest possible escape pod for departure and pick up..." The voice sounded naturally panicked.

There were several more warnings before Krystal blocked them out altogether, she was making almost no ground at all but she could nearly reach him. She fought against the ill tempest that blew from Fox just a bit further until finally her paw wrapped around his ankle. She used her grip as a lever and pulled herself up until she had her legs powerfully locked around his waist pulling at his collar helplessly...

"FOX STOP!! YOU'RE GONNA KILL US ALL!!" She cried out the tears being sucked away from her face by the vaccum that his power created, "FOX PLEASE WAKE UP! STOP IT!! HE'S DEAD...I'M OKAY! PLEASE!!"

When he still didn't answer she placed her paws on both sides of his face and forced his lips onto hers. The color seemed to slowly come back to his eyes as the tempest of destruction seemed to go just as quietly as it had started. She kept her eyes closed, praying for this to work until she opened them to realize she was kissing no more than a limp fox that barely held to her body under her strength...

"CREED!!" She screamed across the hanger, "GET OVER HERE!!"

Creed was there in no time flat, "Krystal...I'm not sure what you did but, I'm glad you did it. What the fuck was that?"

Krystal looked to the beaten and spent fox that Creed now carried, "I wish I knew..."

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**-Undisclosed Location-**

"several hours later"

The one named Elyna hurried into the Omni president's office...

"Ah...Elyna did Marius make it to Beta Complex?"

She looked absolutely petrified, "Si--Cornelius...Beta Complex...It's been completely destroyed" She said tossing a photo of the crumbled mass that was once a branch of the company, "Marius arrived in Varta-7's orbit at 0600 and witnessed the Complex collapsing on itself. His systems detected massive amounts of both Alpha and Gamma telekinetic energies..."

"What in the world could have done this?"

"Cornelius...he also went aboard after everything was done...and found Syler an inch from death, he was battered, beaten, and impaled with his own sword."

"How long until they get back?"

"He should be here within the hour."

"Good...that boy has some explaining to do..." Cornelius said, "Get all the information you can on what happened by all of the staff that made it to the escape pods. I want to know what this 'thing' is...and I want it here."

"I'll gather all the information I can sir..."

Elyna hurried out of the room and Cornelius leaned back in his chair with a sigh, "This sort of power should not exist...not unless I control it."


	24. Chapter XXIII

**-Chapter XXIII-**

"2 days later"

-Sauria's orbit-

Fox had still not recovered from his outburst in Beta Complex, Roxy and Krystal seemed to take turns looking after him. They had all taken back the Dark Star and allowed Sydney to take the transport from Omni,even though he had the remote to it, he needed to get the GIGAS off his neck...even while deactivate he wouldn't feel safe having the thing on his neck. Fox had Krystal worried whatever it was he'd done it took a heavy toll on the fox's body and mind, he was running a fever. She placed a cold rag on his forehead as Creed walked into the room...

"Is he gonna be okay?"

"Not sure...I've never seen that kind of telekinesis before...I didn't even know he was psychic, he never said anything." Krystal replied, "It was odd though that power...It almost felt..."

"Felt like what?" Creed asked.

"Nothing...there's no way that's possible anyway. I--I'm just thinking too hard, not enough sleep."

"Well then get some sleep..." Creed replied, "I'm gonna get us somewhere safe for the time being...this nice little moon in the Krazoa system, little chances they'll look there. Especially now that Omni knows what this ship looks like."

"Good just get us there." Krystal replied laying a wet cloth on Fox's forehead.

"You think he'll wake up anytime soon."

Krystal sighed, "He should be fine after a while longer...father once got like this...so have I when I was younger." She said, "The mind is only capable of handling so much stress...before it basically overloads. At least that's how Slippy put it."

"Well just make sure you don't go without too much sleep okay..." Creed said heading out the door, "Last thing we need it another sick fox on our hands...especially you."

* * *

**(000)**

Meanwhile in the training room Silver sat alone...his training with Roxy had ended hours ago but he still refused to leave the solitude of the small room. He knew what his friends had meant, but, did he truly have emotions or was he just another failed attempt at playing god? From what he was told he was programmed...built not to recognize pain or other emotions, but; he'd felt fear, pain, sorrow...

"Why do they all want to keep their emotions so badly anyhow?" He asked himself sitting on the apron of the sparring ring, "It's all nothing but pain..."

"It's pain that lets you know you're alive..." A familiar voice said as the doors hissed open allowing a massive fox into the room.

"Hey Creed..." The confused fox said, "...how is Scar doing?"

Creed chuckled as he sat next to the young vulpine, he still wouldn't call him Fox, "He'll live. What about you though...usually you're stuck to Roxy like Velcro."

"Am I anything like you or Scar?You know...normal." Silver asked looking to his large friend.

Creed scratched the side of his neck, "Scar and I...we aren't exactly what you'd actually call normal."

"Oh..." Silver replied looking to the floor.

"Kid I didn't mean it like that..." Creed said trying to back the conversation up a bit, "Look I had a Sergeant back in the military that I got pretty close to, he was a good friend...and after getting these arms put in people started to look at me as some sort of freak. You know what he told me one day when he realized all of this was getting to me?"

Silver was intrigued, "What?"

"Don't let 'em get in your head kid...normal doesn't exist, but, only to the idiots that think and hope they can change you to be more like them."

"What did he mean by that?" Silver asked.

"No two people can have the same concept of the word 'normal'...what may be normal to me...doesn't seem so normal to others, just like what you, or Roxy, or Lia, or anyone else considers normal, it won't seem that way to the masses no matter how much you try to convince them otherwise..." Creed said, "You just try to make them see the true you...and FUCK THE MOTHER FUCKERS if they can't fuck'n handle it."

Silver took to mind what Creed said, "I know I shouldn't...and I don't know why I do...but, I care what others think...especially Roxy."

Creed laughed out loud, "Is that what this is about?"

Silver nodded his head slowly, "Partially...I just don't want her seeing me the way everyone else might if they found out what I really am..."

"Really?..." Creed replied, "And what are you? Hmmm?" He asked, "Cuz all I can see is a confused young fox...and that's it...and trust me that last thing you need to worry about is Roxy thinking any less of you, cuz it ain't gonna happen."

"What do you mean by that?"

Creed laughed at the boy's innocence, "You'll figure it out. Lets just go to the bridge and I'll show you a good way to get rid of those kind of thoughts after we plot a course for Cannah..." He said standing up.

It only took until they were in the hall, "Creed what it Cannah?"

"It's this small moon on the far side of the Krazoa system...it's pretty damn secluded so nobody is likely to follow us there."

The two made their way into the bridge where Creed set their new course, then Creed led Silver to the kitchen. Creed left him alone for a small amount of time and returned to set down a small game board on the table he sat at. As Silver looked on Creed set a mess of multicolored stones on the small board; the board was marked with a mess of small black lines that seemed to make a large mesh of diamond shapes. Creed set the small stones in a certain pattern and then took a seat for a moment...

"I ran into this little game in prison...it's called Matrix . Haven't got a clue who invented it. Your point here is to get the different colored stones in the same square as the ones of the same color. The catch you can only jump over a stone of the same color as the one jumping and you're only allowed to move the stones that are free on one or more sides."

Creed sat by for a few moments until he pointed out that Silver needed to start over since he couldn't move any stones, "Well just give it some time and that'll be the only thing on your mind anymore."

Silver wasn't in any type of hurry when Creed left the room. He'd move a stone at a time, slowly thinking about the game as much as he could. He had no idea how much time was passing by, it wasn't long before his nose picked up a familiar scent...that of the pink bunny who had recently been taking her turn watching Fox for any signs of getting better. She found Silver deep in thought while looking at the finished game board in front of him, it hadn't provided any challenge at all, now he only sat at the table with his elbow on the table and his fist supporting his head. Roxy walked over to the table with a cold glass of water and sat at the opposite side across from Silver...she didn't say anything, she only sat there and slowly drank her water...

"Roxy..." Silver finally broke the silence.

"Hmm?" She hummed back to him.

"Did...that blue person, at the space station tell you anything...about me?"

"Nnnno...but Creed told me some things."

Silver was becoming a bit nervous, "Like what?"

"About what Omni did to you, what they claim you are..." Roxy said lowering her head.

"It's not what they claim it's what I am...how can I be anything other than what they made me?"

"Silver..." She said taking a seat beside him, "...I really don't know what to say. I can't tell you what you are or aren't...neither can those assholes from Omni...the only person that can determine who you are is you." She reached over an patted him on the back, "Let me teach you an old trick that my friend Nex taught me a few years ago...close your eyes..."

Silver didn't understand but he trusted Roxy and did as he was told...

"Now..." The pink bunny said, "Take every negative memory, every bad feeling, sadness and push it away where you can't even think about it anymore...now what do you see?"

Silver kept looking and now that all the bad was washed away there was only darkness...but then something did appear and at the very first sight of it the vulpine opened his eyes only to see that it was still there, smiling...

"So did you see anything good?" Roxy asked.

For the first time she could remember he actually smiled a bit, and this time it didn't seem like he was copying anyone, "Better than good..."

"Good..." She said rubbing his head, "...cuz if you can push away all the bad in your life and have even one good thing left to think about...you can't be anywhere near as bad as Omni says."

Roxy turned toward him to say something else but, she found speech impossible as his muzzle met hers. She could feel his paws on the back of her head and for a moment didn't fight it but, once she realized that he was indeed kissing her she pushed away from him...

"SILVER WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

Silver looked both shocked and hurt, "I--I'm...I'm sorry..." He quickly said rushing out of the room.

It was only then that she realized, "SILVER WAIT!!"

She was too late...the silver furred vulpine was far too fast on his feed and was already to far away to hear her. She spent hours searching for the clearly hurt fox but, her searches were fruitless, wherever he'd gotten off to it was one hell of a hiding spot. She finally gave up and headed to bed, it was late and she needed sleep...he'd be out and about in the morning...or so she thought. The morning came and there was no sign of Silver, Roxy was beginning to feel horrible, she hadn't meant to yell at him...he surprised her. That of course didn't stop her from feeling terrible about it.. Some of the feeling washed away over the course of the day when the crew was called to Fox's room, he'd finally woke up. As Roxy approached the door to Fox's room she could hear the undeniable sound of laughter. When she entered the room she found that Krystal and Fox had been talking about old times...something to do with Falco and Peppy...

"Hey..." Fox said a bit weakly.

"How you hold'n up Scar?" Roxy asked a bit of her current state of mind showing in her voice.

"I've been a lot better..." The heavily bandaged vulpine said as Krystal helped him sit up, "Feels like an arwing fell on me to be honest. How's Silver doing? He hasn't come in here to say hi..."

"I--I can't find him..."

"What!?..." Fox half yelled before wrenching back holding his ribs, "What did you do?"

Roxy was a bit insulted that Fox's first blame was on her, "He kissed me..."

Fox's eyes widened with surprise, "What happened?"

"I didn't mean to yell at him but...he surprised me. I think I hurt his feelings...and I keep looking for him but...the little shit's not easy to find when he's hiding."

"You look in the docking bay?" Fox asked.

"Yes."

"...kitchen?"

"Yes."

"...medical bay?"

"Yes."

"...engine room?"

"Ye..." Roxy cut herself off, "...no. I guess I'll go check there."

* * *

As the bunny left Fox placed his hand on his stomach...

"Um...Krys. I hate to ask but...I'm kind of hungry."

She gave Fox a look that seemed to say I'm not your girl anymore...

"Trust me I'd ask Creed just as fast,you saw what happened last time I tried to get up."

Truth was he'd attempted to get up to use the bathroom but found he needed someone to help him out of bed and to walk to the door, since his attempt alone caused his stitches to tear open again, "Alright...but only this once."

As she left the room Fox pulled himself into an upright position, "You can come out of there now Silver..."

A voice echoed through the air vent on the other side of the room, "How did you know?" He asked climbing to the floor.

"I could see your eyes. Now what the hell happened?"

"I--I didn't know I was doing anything wrong...I thought that was how you let someone know that you cared."

"Well...you are primarily right, but, for the most part you want to make sure she sees that coming. Surprise the wrong girl like that and you're likely to get a knee in the crotch...that ain't something you want to experience first hand."

"I really don't know what to do...these emotions are complicated," The silver fox said taking Krystal's seat, "Have you ever felt like this?"

Fox laughed lightly while holding his ribs, ",Yeah. About four maybe five years ago. I fell for this really beautiful girl...every thought in my head was about her, couldn't even concentrate on my job anymore; some of my other teammates tried to get me to remove her from the team but, I wouldn't listen..."

"She was that important? So that means you loved her right?"

"Yeah...still do...don't think it'll ever be any other way. For the longest time I couldn't bring myself to say anything to her...well not relating to us...just work. So to get my mind off of the whole matter I somehow managed to ask her out on a date..."

"A what?" Silver asked.

For a moment Fox had forgotten about the vulpine's lack in simpler knowledge, "Right...a date. Well it's when you and a girl you have an interest in spend some time together, usually doing things together in an attempt to become more familiar with one another; you know, dinner, movie, games...anything the two of you might find interest in."

"Hmmm..." Silver thought to himself.

"You try'n to say you're in love with Roxy or something?"

"I don't—-I don't know..."

Fox half smiled, "You'll know...it gets less complicated the more you think about it...but, you need to be careful when you're dealing with it...if you love someone you should be willing to do anything to protect them...even if the outcome makes you miserable for the rest of your life. It was because of the way I tried to protect the girl I loved that she left me...and I can tell you it hurts far more than any battle wound ever could...but, the saddest part is that I'd do it all over again...as long as it meant that she was going to be safe...I could care less what happens to me..."

"Then what should I do?" Silver asked.

"You could start by getting your ass to the engine room so Roxy can stop feeling like crap for yelling at you."

"Right...thanks Scar."

Fox watched Silver, oddly enough, climb back into the vent...his tail disappeared just as Krystal walked in, there were wet streaks under her eyes that Fox noticed as she walked over and sat a tray of food on his lap...

"Hey whats wrong?"

"No--nothing...I...um...just got something in my eye." She said wiping her eyes on the fur of her forearm, "I've got some things that I need to get done Fox...I'll talk to you again later."

Fox could tell she wasn't being truthful with him...something was wrong but, he couldn't but his finger on it...it hadn't even occurred to him that she may have heard the talk he'd just had with Silver...and all that talk about them brought back some painful memories...

* * *

**(000)**

Roxy walked into the large engine room of the ship, the dull hum of the ships partially plasma driven engines echoed through the massive room, had it been a bit bigger it could have been the size of the docking bay. The pink bunny made her way around the heavy machines and engine components calling for Silver. She figured he probably wouldn't come out but, she had to try something. As she kept looking around she heard a slight metal thud coming from somewhere behind her, causing her to quickly spin to face the sound...

"Silver? You there?" She asked.

"I--I'm sorry..." Silver's voice came out of the shadows.

"You don't need to apologize...I never should have yelled at you...but you should have given me a little warning before pulling something like that. If you had feelings for me you should have just said something..."

"Said what? I hardly understand what I'm feeling myself..."

"Then what gave you the idea to pull something like that?" Roxy asked trying to determine where his voice was coming from.

"Movies...mainly."

"For future reference that's not the best place for romantic advice Silver." Roxy kept looking around, "but did you only do that because you saw it in a movie?"

"No...I really wanted to."

"Okay then...I'll tell you what. You stop hiding and when this ship lands we can go on a date."

Remembering what Fox had said about dates Silver didn't want to pass up the opportunity to get to know Roxy any better, and he slowly stepped out of the darkness, his head was still lowered a bit as if he expected to be scolded for something...

"How did you manage to stay down here so long it's hot down here?" Roxy asked.

"I--was in the vents. I remembered how nice it was when Scar and I hid there on Titania."

Roxy shuddered, "Don't remind me of Titania...while you two were in that vent shaft, I was standing knee deep in sewage." She wiped the thought from her mind, "Well anyway lets get out of here...we should be landing in a few more hours...don't want to be down here when that happens."

* * *

-**Undisclosed Location**-

Cornelius sat at his desk going over a detailed report of what had happened at Beta Complex, and was very interested in the surveillance of Fox's little outburst of power, He leaned back in his chair...

"Elyna...get Strider in here." He said calmly into the intercom on his desk.

"I'm sorry Cornelius but at the moment Strider is having some modifications done in the R&D wing of the Complex."

"Well send him in when he's done...also find out what you can about the fellow on the surveillance videos we recovered from Beta Complex, also get me a read up on Syler's condition, and check that device that the captain of the Beta Complex guard put on those animals's ship...I want to know where they're headed."

"Strider should be on his way to your office within the hour. As for Syler our medical staff had to do some major repairs...they had to replace his left eye, some glass and metal had completely destroyed it. They've removed a massive amount of shrapnel from his face and chest...I'm not sure when he'll fully recover...and I'll get right on that data from the video and the tracking device ASAP..."

"Good..." He replied turning to face the window behind him, "Something disturbs me about that young fox."

* * *

**AN: sorry for the really late update...but I've been going through a rather extensive relocation of sorts. The next few chapter will be extra long in restitution of my tardyness...and for those that are wondering the action will pick up again in the next two chapters...R&R let me hear your thoughts...and thanx for reading like always...Cya next time...**


	25. Chapter XXIV

-**Chapter XXIV-**

-11:48am... Cannah's orbit-

Fox had somehow...against the advice of his crew and friends made it out of bed and to the bridge, Krystal was a bit shocked to find him there when she woke up. She had been sleeping in his captain's seat for the last few days since he was injured which helped since he had already set up a sleeping area before he was injured, she simply wondered how long it had taken him to limp from his room to the kitchen to get the cup of coffee he was drinking, and then to the bridge where he was now standing before the bridge's massive viewing window looking at the small blue moon below them. She slowly got up and walked over to his side where she rubbed the sleep from her eyes...

"You really shouldn't be up like this..." She said.

Fox didn't reply he just stood there looking out at Cannah, "Beautiful isn't it? You know technically it shouldn't even be called a moon; healthy air, atmosphere, all the essentials for life...but unlike Corneria completely untouched and unharmed."

"Why hasn't such a beautiful place been colonized?"

"The local wildlife is a bit harsh...but as long as we stay on the ship we'll be fine." Fox replied, "MIA find a clearing and land this thing."

"Yes captain..." The computer's voice called back.

Fox began to make his way off the bridge slowly...making sure not to aggravate his injuries, "I'm going back to bed...do me a favor and take command until I'm back to working order again."

"Sure...whatever you say Fox."

She didn't fully understand, he never gave up command of his own ships not even to Falco. Maybe it was just some sort of trick to try and win her back. Or maybe he had finally come to terms with his injuries accepting them as the serious wounds they were. He didn't seem to have any recollection of the events that had taken place in the Beta Complex's docking bay...or even most of the time they had spent there...whatever power it was she knew he had, he was blissfully unaware of them. Yet Krystal was no fool, she knew a Cerinian's power nearly by smell alone and at that one moment he reeked of it...but, how could it be possible that he could harness powers that only the Cerinians possessed? She was certain that Fox had mentioned something when they had first become teammates that he was born on Papetoon. As he walked out of the room...well limped, Fox picked up the staff and small golden cylinder that they had been puzzling over for the last week or so.

* * *

**(000)**

Fox found his entire situation aggravating on an astounding level, his injuries gave him far too much alone time...he did enjoy his time by himself but, there can be too much of a good thing; it left him to his thoughts far more than he cared for...especially since most of them were of Krystal...and all the things he'd gone through to get to this point. Then again that was what the staff puzzle was for once his thoughts got to him he reached for the small cylinder...something was different however...the top and bottom cap of the small thing were both gone. As he examined the small thing he noticed on one end that there was a small impression that looked similar to the headpiece of the staff...he of course slid the staff into place, and as soon as it locked the outer skin of the cylinder fell to four sides like it had before when Krystal was in the vents of the Beta Complex. The burst of incredible light caused the injured vulpine to cover his eyes until the light subsided...

"The fuck was that?"

As he slowly opened his eyes, Fox was awe stricken...all around him was a wall of light, dark like a night sky littered with small white dots who's patterns looked incredibly familiar. He then noticed that there were larger colored ones...he knew this strange hologram...it was a star map that seemed to envelope the entire room...

"It's a complete star map of Lylat." As he looked on he noticed something else, "Why is Fichina pulsating red?"

Fox forced the four sides of the cylinder to close back up making the hologram vanish, "Could this be what Syler was after? He seemed pretty damned adamant about this staff. I'm gonna have to talk to Krys about this...if there are any answers at all to this I'm betting we'll find 'em on Fichina."

* * *

-**4 days later**-

-10:06am-

Fox was happy enough that his ribs no longer caused him such pain that standing made life miserable...unfortunately he was still rather badly injured from his fight with Syler...his head felt like a constant migraine , and he still couldn't help but wonder about that damn star map in the cylinder as he took a warm shower. Why a star map? Why was Fachina on that map the only thing with a bright red pulse? Why would a map have been so important to that moron Syler? Did he even know about the map? The thoughts pulverized his already injured brain into submission until he finally stopped thinking about it. He exited the room and headed to his dresser. He picked out a gray pair of cargo jeans and a matching tee shirt that turned out to be a bit tight around the chest...he had a bit of trouble getting it on though as his ribs seemed to disagree with him raising his arms too high, he didn't even bother to put his boots on before heading out of the room and making his way slowly toward the kitchen...As it had been recently everyone was already there. Creed had already made breakfast Krystal was in loner mode sitting off by herself most likely thinking, Silver sat at one table eating, and as they usually did the two friends Roxy and Lia were chatting lowly to themselves at another table while eating their own food...Fox took a seat across from Krystal whom seemed to ignore him altogether as she sat there mutilating a fried egg with her fork rolling it over on her plate again and again...

"Krystal?"

Fox's voice seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she was int...

"Hmm...What?"

"You feeling alright?

The blue vixen sat down her fork, "Yeah I'm fine just a little lost in thought."

"You're the one that unlocked the cylinder right?" He asked.

"Yeah the light off that thing damn near got me killed."

Fox leaned in a bit, "Yeah that cylinder...It's some kind of star map of Lylat. It only seems to work when it's fixed to the top of your staff. I looked at it for a while and...I think it's telling us to go to Fichina for some reason."

"Why would a star map my people made point you to a frozen waste like Fichina? It doesn't make any sense."

"I don't know...but. Why do you think Syler was so obsessed with that staff? I think he knew about the staff...hell I think he may have known why it's pointing to Fichina...he was Cerinian after all."

"Okay...say you're right..." Krystal said, "You haven't fully recovered yet."

"True enough but...think about how hard it was to open that cylinder...why would the Cerinians make it so hard to find something as simple as a map?"

Krystal leaned back in her seat for a moment, "Three days."

"What?" Fox asked not catching her point.

"Give yourself three days more to heal up and we'll leave..."

"One day..." Fox came back, "It'll take two to get there."

"Fine then..." Krystal replied, "Two days here...two on the way there...plenty of time for you to get healed up some more."

"Well I made you captain until I feel ready to take charge again so fine two days..." Fox finally agreed before Creed sat a plate of food in front of him, "You hear about Silver and Roxy yet?"

"Yeah..." Krystal said leaning back in her seat, "I give it a week."

"You know not every relationship is bound to end like ours..."

"It was your fault that ours ended in the first place..." She snapped at him.

Fox sighed and pushed his plate away, "And I'm willing too admit that. Do you really take so much pleasure in ripping that wound open whenever you get a chance? What's with you today? We were getting along just fine until now what the fuck?"

"You wouldn't understand..."

"I could if you'd just tell me..."

Krystal looked like she was on the verge of tears, "Fine...my problem is the same thing it's been for the last years of my life. Almost 10 years ago this very day, some idealistic son of a bitch took out an entire planet of people...MY PEOPLE..."

With those words she stormed out of the room, "Don't take it the wrong way Fox..." Creed said taking her seat, "She gets like that every year around this time...She blames herself you know? For everything that happened to Cerinia...I don't know why but...she dose. I've tried to help her get rid of that misplaced guilt but, I think that's why she misses you so much really..."

"Yeah sure..." Fox replied sceptically.

"I'm serious...she told me that when she was a member of that team...especially around you, she didn't think about it so much anymore. I think that's why kicking her off the team hurt her so much...she just didn't want to feel like this again."

"She sure as hell doesn't act like it.."

Creed took a sip from the mug of coffee he'd sat down with, "Well in all fairness you did break her heart...and when you've been though as much as she has you start to put up walls..."

"Those are some big fucking walls..."

"Yeah she doesn't do anything half assed...she goes all-out. Unfortunately I've never been close enough to her to actually help her through any of this...but, maybe if you tried hard enough you could."

Fox looked a bit unsure, "How's that?"

"Beats the fuck outta me." Creed said standing before leaving the room, "You're smart I think you can figure it out."

As they tend to the day rolled by uneventfully, to everyone's surprise Fox had confined himself to the bridge, either thinking or something, he wouldn't tell anyone what he was doing. He spent his time combing through the computer for god only knows what...he had been endlessly studying whatever it was he was studying for two days before Krystal sauntered in keeping her eyes on the metal floor. She really didn't want to be there but she did promise Creed...

"Hey..." She said lightly, "Creed needs you in the docking bay."

She started out the door but Fox caught her by the wrist, "Wait just a sec...when did you say Cerinia was destroyed?"

Krystal was a bit stunned but gave him a cold glare, "It was about 10 years ago...why?"

"No particular reason...was there anything unusual happening before the planet died?"

_What's this sudden obsession with Cerinia?_ She asked herself, "Not really initially I was just trying to get off the ship my parents forced me onto." She said, "Are you done?"

"Yeah...just let Creed know that I'll be there in a few..." Fox replied going back to his work.

"Look we're taking off today..." Krystal said half way out the door, "I'm sorry I blew up in your face like that."

Fox sat down, "Are you saying that or did Creed talk you into it?"

"Actually you're wrong on both counts..." She said leaving the room, "It was Roxy."

Fox was at his studies for another hour before he pulled his head out of a mass of files and the computer terminals. He was a bit groggy when walking out into the open hall. The ship was eerily silent...he hated a dead silence they always made him feel uncomfortable. Fox's footsteps didn't even carry it was as if the entire ship was void of sound altogether it was actually making his head ache. He stopped for a moment and caught himself against the nearest wall as he lost his balance. Maybe it was just his wounds from his fight with Syler...maybe some of them had become infected or something. He took a moment to catch his breath and get his head on straight. It was the gruff voice of Creed that snapped him out of whatever state he was in...

"Hey are you alright?" Creed asked helping the winded vulpine to his feet, "I was just headed to see what the fuck was taking you so long when I saw you collapse."

Fox shook the cobwebs from his head, "Y--yeah...I...I'm fine...I think." He said as he found his legs again, "You needed me for something?"

"Yeah...actually. There was something weird coming through on one of the com channels while I was going over the systems on your arwing like you asked me. Funny fucking thing though...I went back through the systems and all of your console's drives and memories...according to your arwing you never received the message."

"Did you get a clear image of the person's face?" Fox asked as they walked into the docking bay.

Fox climbed into his arwing's cockpit, "No...well...a few flashes of a white face and green eyes but that was about it."

"Did you catch any of the message?"

"Not much all I caught was this gorgeous voice and a name..."

"What name?"

Creed looked back for a moment, "Vixy."

"WHAT!? ARE YOU SURE!?"

"Yeah why...?"

"That was my mom's name...Hang on." Fox suffled around inside his arwing's cockpit for a minute or so, then reached out handing Creed a photo, "She's the one on the far right."

Creed examined the photo, parts of it were worn and weathered with long while crease lines in it...a family of three foxes; one looked like Fox but was wearing a pair of black shades, there was a kit that only stood up to this foxes knees...the kit was smiling brightly...then he moved his sights to the vixen that whom was held close to the one wearing the shades, she had pale white fur that looked absolutely flawless, but most of all it was her hypnotic deep green eyes that caught his attention...

"This is the same vixen from the transmission...I could never forget a face like that."

"That's my mom...she died when I was a kit...not much older than I am in the photo." Fox said taking the photo back.

"Then how do you explain her being on that com channel?" Creed asked.

Fox sighed and looked to the photo in his paw, "I...I don't know--hell I don't even know who I am anymore...or at the least what I am?"

"Well...think about it...if I saw her on this com channel then that can only mean one thing right?" Creed asked.

"Yeah..." Fox said looking toward the docking bay ceiling, "She's...still alive."

* * *

-**Undisclosed Location**-

Cornelius was furious at the guard that was on the monitor mounted on his desk...the canine stood still with his eyes clenched shut tightly, simply listening...

"YOU FUCKING MORON!!" The doctor screamed, "YOUR DUTY IS TO WATCH THAT CELL AT ALL TIMES!! WE HAVE SAFETY MEASURES FOR A FUCKING REASON...YOU SHIT BRAINED SON OF A BITCH!!"

The president took a moment to think and calm down, "Where did the prisoner go?"

"Th-th—the d-docking bay S-sir. We believe a distress call was sent out." The guard replied.

"Fine...that doesn't mean anything. Have any of them at least talked?"

The guard sighed, "No sir...unfortunately there have been no more words about the key or what it dose."

"That's fine by me let them rot in that hell hole. What other news have you got for me?"

"Your replacement for the assassinated senator is working flawlessly sir...and there is already confrontation between Corneria and Katina...but I am sure that with the Cornerian military behind us we can take over Katina in a bit more than a week maybe less."

"Well then increase the guard around your station...we don't want that little accident happening all over again...the last thing we need is someone trying to be a hero." Cornelius said, "Just keep and ear out for anything reguarding the key or it's purpose...Strider is on his way to retrieve it as we speak."

"Yes sir."

"And KEEP that prisoner in her cell...she's stronger than you're giving her credit for."

"Yes sir I'll get right back to work sir."

The frustrated president leaned back in his seat rubbing his temples, "Ugh...I'm surrounded by useless morons."

* * *

**AN/ Okay after this chapter it's time for the action to pick back up again...though this time the action is going to last quite a bit longer as Fox and the crew are about to hit some seriously turbulent waters. R&R...and thnx for reading. Till next time y'all...Cya **


	26. Chapter XXV

-**Chapter XXV**-

-The next day-

-Hyperspace en route to Fichina-

Fox found sleep impossible, he couldn't concentrate on what he'd been studying either...he couldn't stand it...all this time he thought he'd been alone in the world and his mother was still alive. Why was she kept away from him? His thoughts of what may be happening to her or what kind of place she may be in. Eventually the thoughts drove him to one possible recourse...

* * *

**(000)**

Krystal woke with a start as the ship jolted forward, she'd only recently gotten to sleep which showed in the heavy bags under her eyes, but, it was early...maybe there was just a problem in the hyperdrive engines and MIA had shut them down until someone could fix them. Krystal slid her legs over the side of her bed, she slid out of her underwear as she headed into the bathroom...a cold shower would wake just about anyone up this early. She simply walked into the hollow cavity in the wall that was called a shower and then turned on the cold water; the shock as the frigid spray made contact with her fur and skin instantly took her breath away, she quickly wrapped her arms around her breasts in an instinctive attempt to keep her body heat from escaping, but then turned around...she let out a light yelp as the cold waters drove a frigid chill through her spine. After making sure she was thoroughly awake Krystal shut off the water and walked out of the shower where she began to dry her fur, normally she'd have blown it dry but, her appearance wasn't on the top of her list right now. Once her fur was dry she walked out of the room and went to the closet where she slid into a new pair of panties and a new bra,she slid into a pair of dark green sweat pants...she was pretty sure they were Fox's but right now she just needed to see to the engines, and after sliding into a white tee shirt that was several sizes too large for her smaller frame she walked out into the hallway. She thought to herself for a moment...she'd need help if it were a larger problem, and there was only one person on the ship that knew enough about a ship's hyperdrive engines to be of any help.

Krystal approached the door to the bridge, which let out an airy hiss as it slid open at her presence...usually the only sound needed to wake Fox.

She walked up to his seat where he'd began to sleep again, "Hey Fox we need to..." She cut herself off as she realized that there was nobody there. "Maybe he already beat me down there...he is usually a pretty light sleeper."

She slowly began to walked to the elevators at the end of the hall. When she finally reached the engine room she heard nothing...

"Fox!" She called getting no more than her dull echo in reply, "Hmm...MIA locate Captain."

"Captain not located..."

"WHAT!?"

"The captain is no longer aboard the ship...arwing departure approximately 21 minutes ago."

"Where was he headed?"

"Flight path of the Captain's arwing would suggest that his desired destination was either Katina or Corneria."

Krystal stomped into the elevator, as it came back to her original floor she turned and headed toward the bridge, "MIA...wake everyone up!"

Within the next few minutes the crew began to wander onto the bridge one by one; Creed didn't look all too upset then again chances were he was already awake anyhow, Roxy and Lia on the other hand looked horrible, slept in messed hair and fur with drooping eyes, Silver seemed to be himself as well as Creed maybe they had both already been up...

"Hey Krys..." Roxy said pausing to yawn, "What gives?"

"Fox left...he took off in his arwing about a half hour ago."

"What why!?" Lia and Roxy seemed to shout at the same time.

Creed thought back to that transmission and walked to the viewing window..._Good luck kid._

"Creed do you know anything about this?" Krystal asked.

"Not a damned thing...If he wanted us to know he would have told us."

"Have you got any fucking clue what's going on down there on Corneria?"

Creed headed toward the door, "Yep...that's why I'm not worried...that boy was born and bread for battle...he'll live." He said before heading out the door, "You should be more worried about drying up those tears anyway."

Krystal ran her fingers under her eyes, the collected a bit of moisture, she then rubbed her forearm over her eyes to dry away anything that was left, "MIA get us clearance and plot a course for Corneria."

* * *

**-Hyperspace Fox's arwing-**

Fox had no intention of sleeping even though the flight was going to take several hours and he had not gotten any sleep at all. He had been searching the small fighter's memory banks for the transmission that Creed had mentioned. It sounded like a burst transmission...a sort of distress signal used in rare cases that was sent to any ship within range to pick it up but that theory didn't pan out as only his arwing picked it up...he did find it odd that his arwing was the only ship that picked up the signal, but, he quickly determined why. Though it did look different now the ship he was currently flying was his father's...it had been modified from his older arwing...the one he didn't fly when he was killed. It was only natural that his mother would send a signal to him...chances were she didn't even know he was dead. At one point however he no longer thought of anything other than her...someone had to know where she was and Corneria was the best place to start. He figured it best to start with the one person that knew everything that happened to his family...Peppy.

Fox woke up to the sound of a familiar voice that was braking through his com system...

"This is the Cornerian Defense Department...we are in a state of war...state your name and business or turn around and leave..."

Fox didn't even realize that he'd fallen asleep, he simply slid on his shades and turned on the com link, "This is Fox Jamison McCloud...and I have business from general Peppy."

The collie that appeared was familiar enough, "Hey there Angie..." He said lifting the shades a bit so she could see his eyes.

"Sir though I'm sure you look a lot like him Fox McCloud is dead."

"Really? The how the hell do I know about the time you dated Falco? Or about Tom, Max, and Angle? Or the fact that you were so nervous at your own wedding that you threw up all over Tom...I don't care what you say, that was the second funniest thing I've ever fucking seen."

Her face went blank for a moment, only someone that was there would have known all of that, "Well if you're Fox then...who the fuck did we bury?" Angie asked.

"Look I don't have time to think about that...but chances are Omni is behind everything. They've already tried to kill me twice...and I think they may be behind Corneria's current situation. Just don't say anything to anyone, you never can tell who is working for them."

"I can get you clearance to land...just think up some sort of alias..." Angie said, "But be careful it's a fucking war zone down here...there are riots and shit everywhere."

"Just sign me in a Jase Sims."

Angie went to work for a moment, "Hang on...okay. You're clear to land mister Sims. You be careful okay?"

"Don't worry about me Angie...I'm tougher than I look."

"The General is in the Corneria first district hospital...something about his heart."

"I may need some help..." Fox said as his small ship broke into the atmosphere.

"Well there is an old friend of yours that was sent here as part of a treaty comity to try and patch things up with the high council."

Fox thought for a moment, "Bill Gray? Good...you know where I can find him?"

"The North Star inn on the far side of the Valding district."

Fox thought for a moment, "Right I know the place...I'll head there as soon as I land. Is my stuff still in storage?"

"Yeah...it hasn't been moved to auction yet. You still know the combination to the door?"

Fox tapped his forehead with his knuckles, "Like a steel trap."

"Well try to make this fast...I don't want to see you caught on TV. I know you can convince me and Peppy and possibly Bill that you are who you say you are but...others may not be willing to accept that so quickly."

"You're the best Angie..."

"I know..." The collie said with a huge smile before cutting the transmission.

Fox didn't land in his usual place in the massive star port; he decided instead to land somewhere near the very back of the construct where he was least likely to be spotted by any type of soldier or such. He wasn't surprised by the sheer number of ships that were there...they were everywhere, and varied in sizes and shapes...everything from standard fighters like his, to massive military transports. As soon as he leaped from his cockpit he was of course welcomed by a mechanic...they usually worked on a commission so the more ships they fixed and got on their roster the more they were eventually paid, not counting what was often tipped by the ship's owners. He gave the go ahead to work on the small ship and then with made sure he was equipped for any situation from his ship's small cargo bay. He naturally always carried his blaster and pistol, as well as his father's old combat knife. He also made himself as unnoticeable as possible, he was wearing baggier than usually pants dark gray pants who's legs were tucked into his combat boots to keep from dragging the ground, his hands were covered by a pair of black fingerless gloves and he of course kept his shades on...despite the fact that it was a bit overcast outside. On his way toward the cit not a single animal gave him a second look. He stopped near an unoccupied car and noticed his reflection in the lightly tinted windows, his face was so different; the scar had turned the light brown of a burn scar and he had let his hair grow out a lot longer, instead of a small strip of white on his head it was more of a small mess of hair, he kind of liked it...he'd attempted to grow it long when he was younger but his father had made him cut it down anyway...

"It really has been a long time hasn't it?" He said to himself.

One could hear the screams of the protesters and rioters in the streets, this was nothing like the home he'd left behind. As he wandered into the heart of the city there were overturned cars, several dead animal lay in the streets, a nearby shop's alarm was going off from what appeared to be a trash can that had been thrown through the window. As he noticed a police car he ducked down and alley and decided to take a detour on the way to the storage he'd kept his things in when he'd left the planet for the war. As he made his trek from block to block he heard something behind him, footsteps, running in his direction. As soon as he turned a young hare ran into him...his blaster was drawn...then he got a clear look at the young hare's face...

"Lucy?"

Peppy's only daughter didn't need any other confirmation to who he was, Fox was like and uncle to her she knew th e sound of his voice anywhere, "Keep 'em away from me!" She yelled hiding behind him as a white furred cat barreled around the corner, only to have a blaster stuck in his face.

"Look dude...just let her go and you wont get hurt." The cat said pulling a small blaster.

"You sure you wanna do this? You can live if you just run now."

The feline slowly began to put his blaster away but at the last second made a move toward Fox with it. Lucy looked away as Fox's blaster discharged in the cat's face tearing a large hole in the side of his face, the searing hot energy blast let off the horrible stench of burnt fur and flesh. Fox turned away as he put away his blaster. Lucy was not the tallest creature alive, then again she was still only in her twenties, she had a fairly petite body, something that made her stand out a bit among the more curvy girls...but her smarts never ceased to amaze Fox even at a young age she was destined for great thing in the field of physics. There were several small cuts on her face that were lightly bleeding, and what clothes she was wearing were all torn and ripped. She quickly took the cat's pants and shirt, replacing hers...

"What the hell is going on here?" Fox asked.

"The whole place went to hell after they heard about another war...I was on the way to the hospital to see poppa when this creep attacked me." Lucy yelled kicking the cat's destroyed face.

"Well this sort of pressure makes people do some fucked up stuff. How's the old man doing?"

"Not good...something about his heart...couldn't handle all this new stress. The replaced him with some snot nosed shit head named Zeek, and he only seems to want this war to happen. None of it makes any sense."

"Maybe it dose...where can I find this new General?"

"I--I don't know...he doesn't stay in the General's office like normal." Lucy said, "Poppa might know though."

"Well then you're coming with me..."

"Okay uncle Fox..."

"And don't call me that...as long as I'm on this planet my name is Jase."

"You're the boss Jase." Lucy smiled.

Fox rubbed the pink furred hare's head, "Good girl."

Fox and Lucy walked through the alley and made their way to a small lot covered in small metal buildings, they walked among the small buildings until Fox stopped near one...lot number X-1849. He stepped up to the lock panel and punched in a small code which caused the door to open. Fox walked in and pulled a large green tarp off of something...an old black and gray hover cycle. He pulled the old bike out of the storage unit and tossed Lucy a helmet. It had been more than a few years since Fox had last rode his old hover bike but, there was no way he'd ever forget how...Lucy let out a shreik as the bike jolted forward tearing out of the storage long in a blaze of speed. As they sped toward the hospital Fox began to fill her in on everything that had happened regarding Omni and what had happened with his relationship with Krystal...after a long trip and a lot of explaining the two arrived at the hospital where Peppy was being kept. Nobody even seemed to suspect Fox as he entered the lobby with Lucy, they were pointed to the old hare's room..

Fox stayed back while Lucy saw to the old man, "Poppa are you gonna be alright?"

"I'll be fine Lucy but, why're you dressed like a man?"

"It's not important..." Lucy said hugging the old hare, "But someone's here to see you."

"Hey old man..." Fox said as he walked to the bed ridden hare.

"Fox? I knew you couldn't be dead..." Peppy laughed, "..you're too god damned stubborn to die."

Peppy looked nothing like Fox recalled most of the vibrant life that normally exuded from him was gone, what color there was in his face was replaced by the same color white as his mustache, "This isn't a pleasure visit Peppy...there are things that you need to tell me."

"For instance?" Peppy asked pulling himself into a sitting position.

"Lucy could you give us a few?" Fox asked, Lucy looked to her father who nodded in confirmation, "Am I a Cerinian?" Fox asked as soon as Lucy left the room.

"What would give you..."

"Just answer the fucking question!" Fox almost yelled.

Peppy was shocked at the vulpine's tone, "...Yes...Yes Fox you are half Cerinian...your mother was a Cerinian."

"Where is she Peppy? I got a transmission from her yesterday...where is she?"

"Fox you're letting all of this get to your head...Vixy died in that explosion. I was there I saw the body."

Fox looked away, "You saw my body didn't you? At my funeral...I'm still here."

"Fox I can't help you with any of this...I don't know anything about it...but if she is alive I do hope you find her."

"You can still help...I have reason to believe that the guy replacing you was placed there by Omni...I'm pretty damn sure this whole war is because of them...Do you know where I can find him? According to Lucy he doesn't stay on the base too much." Fox asked.

"I'm afraid that I wouldn't know anything about that...I've been in here for weeks." Peppy replied.

"Fine then do me a favor...contact Bill. Tell him you need him to go to the McCloud Memorial in that park on the north side of town."

"And tell him what?" Peppy asked.

"That an old friend of his needs his help." Fox said walking toward the door, "Oh and make sure Lucy has an escort home. The streets are a mess out there."

Fox left Lucy to her father and headed out of the hospital and boarded his hover bike. The park compared to the rest of the city was seemingly untouched. The grass was well taken care of, all of the equipment for the kids to play on was well kept, the trees were looking healthy enough, but most of all his father's memorial statue was still there, it was erected about six months after his death, a tall proud standing image of the hero that gave his life trying to protect Lylat. It was getting dark so he removed his sunglasses and hooked one of the arms into the collar of his shirt, he wasn't sure whether or not Bill would even show up but, as he heard the footsteps approaching Fox was sure it was him. The brown furred canine didn't even see him as he passed the statue...

"How the whole marriage thing working for ya Bill?"

Bill's black furred ears perked up before he shot around to examine the owner of the voice he'd heard, "Fox?...It can't be...the body, funeral."

"Set-up." Fox replied.

Bill sat down with Fox on the statue's base, "I should have known better...you're too god damn stubborn to die."

Fox looked a bit annoyed, "So I've been told. So how's Ayme been?" Fox changed the subject.

"Not good. Lymphoma...the doctors say it isn't an aggressive form but...they don't think she'll be able to handle the stress of giving birth. They've given her options but, you know how she is...she's wanted her own pup for years. She's gonna have that kid even if it kills her."

Fox was a bit sorry he'd asked, "What're you gonna do?"

"Only thing I can...give her my love and support till the end." Bill replied, "I didn't want to leave home but, these god damn senate fucks can't solve anything for themselves."

"I feel kinda bad asking a favor like this..."

Bill chuckled and slapped Fox on the back, "Fox...we've been friends for what? 15 years...if there's something you need tell me."

"What do you think about Omni?"

"The ship company?" Bill asked confused.

"Not quite..."

The next hour and a half was spent explaining everything that Fox and his crew had learned about Omni and what they really where...

Bill was flabbergasted, "That is some deep shit."

"What's worse is I think they may have set up my mother's supposed death and pinned it on Andross...I got a transmission from her yesterday. I think Omni has her held captive somewhere."

"Then why start looking here?" Bill asked.

"What better place to hide something?"

"Then right under your nose..." Bill finished the sentence, "So how do you intend to find her?"

"That's where you come in...I need records, files, anything you can find having to do with the Cerinians..." Bill gave him a blank look, "I'll explain later...also anything about something called the Key would help. As for anything else I just need to know where this General Zeek is."

"Why do you need to see that fucker?"

"Because if I'm right this whole war is because of Omni and he's working for 'em."

Bill stood up with a yawn, "Right then...meet me back here tomorrow at zero-100hours. Until then Zeek usually stays in his penthouse in the Talroy building on 56th and Barsson. It's a small building compared to the others around it; his penthouse is on the 34th floor, apartment number 808. He treats my platoon like his own personal guard so do me a favor and try not to kill anyone."

Fox chuckled, "Me? Kill?"

"I'm not joking Fox." Bill said walking away.

* * *

**(000)**

Thanks to his bike Fox was at the apartment building in no time...it was still a bit light out so he decided to loiter around a bit until nightfall, the streets had since calmed a bit...but even this richer side of the city looked like shit...apparently the people of Corneria finally started fending for themselves instead of clinging to one or several individuals instead. The night skies brought rain, it started low enough but ended in a torrential downpour, Fox quickly took cover under a nearby shop's awning. Fox shook himself as dry as possible...

"I hate rain..."

After a bit of time Fox noticed a single hover car pull up to the building, the one that stepped out seemed to love the rain as he stood there for a moment giving Fox a good look at his face; he had light brown fur that seemed rather slick, his muzzle was a bit shorter than Fox's and his ears were rounder...an otter. The otter stretched his back...

"I need to be at the base by 11:30am..." He said walking toward the building's door.

"Yes sir General..." The driver said before driving off.

Fox waited a bit and then walked into the building; it was a nice place, not too fancy in the lobby, a simple plant here and there, a few paintings, a red rug and to his surprise a crystal chandelier. He stalked his quarry all the way to 34th floor...originally this wasn't something that Fox was any good at but a friend had shown him some pointers and he had become fairly good at it, that alongside the cunning of a fox, he remained unseen and unheard. As he stood in the hall Fox sniffled a bit, he was catching a cold. He peeked around the corner there was no guard...they were probably inside the room...

"Fuck..." Fox said to himself, "I guess there ain't no pussyfooting around this."

The room was rather nice and large, the almost perfectly round living room was centered by a large crescent shaped sofa, which placed a sitter right near the fireplace...these were only used for romantic effect anymore. There was a small bar next to the kitchen, which could have stood to be a bit bigger. Two guards sat on the large leather sofa...they were the only guards on duty for the night. Zeek had company and didn't like a lot of extras around for when he was...entertaining a lady. The two guards were a smaller build raccoon and hare, they both sat on the sofa watching the TV...though neither was certain what they were watching.

There was a knock at the door, "Answer the door..." The raccoon said.

"Yeah yeah you lazy bastard." The annoyed Lapin said getting to his feet.

The hare made his way across the room slowly...he wasn't in much of a hurry to tell someone to fuck off. He looked through the door's peep hole but, there was nobody there to look at. He began to fiddle with the different locks on the door while drawing a blaster...

He opened the door with and aggravated grunt, "Someone had best not be fucking arou...UMPH..."

The sound of his partner's suddenly muffled words caused the raccoon to jump from his seat, "Jason?" He called pulling his own weapon, "Jason so help me if this is one of those god damn pranks I'll kill you myself." He said approaching the door with and air of caution.

The raccoon peeked around the corner to see his friend's arms laying on the floor around the corner down the hall. At first he didn't buy into it...Jason was a natural prankster, he took a few steps forward, the arms didn't move. In the position they were in, it appeared that Jason lay unconscious just around the corner...

"Boy you better be hurt bad..." The raccoon said, "Cuz if you ain't you will be."

The raccoon started toward his friend but was startled into stopping as the hand vanished around the corner. Not as if the motion was of Jason's own free will but as if he'd suddenly been pulled around the corner. The raccoon rushed over but as he rounded the corner with his blaster aimed around the corner a paw clamped around the barrel and stripped it rather quickly. Fox smiled as he aimed his blaster but, to his great surprise he too was disarmed by the quick fingered rodent. Fox quickly reached out with his other paw to aim his other weapon and then it began the two were battling over control of the firearm in the other's paw. Surprisingly enough the raccoon was much stronger than he looked and soon the rodent's blaster was in position to fire but, withing that instant Fox pressed the release button on the weapon's handle, kicking the plasma cartridge out a nearby window on it's way to the ground. In response to this maneuver the raccoon swung about placing his back to the nearby elevator and wrenched the blaster from Fox's paw which fell to the floor. Fox, aware that the raccoon would go for this blaster as well, pulled him forward at the same time sliding between his legs kicking the blaster into the opened elevator door...he then made a sharp spin slamming his heel into the lift's command console...and as the console crumbled the doors closed locking the last blaster inside...

Without a warning the raccoon was on him, the rodent's fighting skills were much better than Fox had hoped for. They exchanged their blows in a mastered display of kicks and punches. The raccoon showed his true skill when Fox landed a particularly powerful leg sweep, but, instead of hitting the ground the his opponent landed on one powerful paw almost in a handstand at the same time driving a foot into Fox's right cheek which smashed the vulpine's face into the nearest wall. As Fox looked to the rodent he noticed something odd about his fighting stance...it was almost like a dance, crossing one arm over his chest then the other while throwing the other behind him and shuffling his legs to the opposite rhythm...

"Capoeira?" Fox asked himself.

Fox had done studies and read books, even watched videos on the art of Capoeira but...he'd never seen it first hand. He had always heard it was also known as dance fighting and now he was well aware of why. The movement was fluid and off beat almost like the rhythm to a song. He rushed in on the raccoon but, that turned out to be a major mistake. His kick missed altogether as the rodent preformed a perfect back bend, and kicked Fox in the chin as he followed through with the single handed handspring. The anger, along with the ache in his jaw, caused Fox to rush in again but, this time he went low, he aimed for the knees but there was nothing there...he caught a glimpse of the ringtail's foot just before it collided with his ribs forcing him to stumble a bit. The raccoon rushed him this time preforming a strange side flip before striking at Fox's legs...the flip had implied that his attack was going to come from above not below...When the attack did not force Fox's strong legs to give, the rodent dropped to one hand swinging a single sweep at the vulpine's legs again...but like the flip this first attack was a feint as the rodent's other foot came up from the opposite side, his heel cracking open a cut on Fox's left cheek. Before Fox could counter the attack the raccoon quickly flipped away from the fox. That last kick had really hurt, Fox hissed at the pain and fixed a murderous glare on the ringtail. Fox took his own stance this time, he was going to make this little shit pay for underestimating him...As the raccoon realized that Fox had recovered he rushed in again, the raccoon dropped to one hand again but this time Fox followed him to the grown and instead of throwing a kick he threw a leg sweep at the rodent's arm which was torn from beneath him causing the raccoon's head to make a loud impact with the floor. As soon as the rodent stood he found himself barraged by a flurry of massively powerful punches the final of which sent him reeling back in pain holding his ribs. Fox's stance shifted and he rushed the raccoon in a dizzying spin, and after the third rotation Fox stopped planting his foot as well as the gathered centrifical force, into the side of the creature's head...the attack most assuredly killed the animal on impact, but, unfortunately Fox had used too much force as the body preformed a sideways flip through a nearby window. He hated it to end like that...it was a waste of a perfectly good fighter...but there was no time for remorse...

Fox headed into the general's room...there was soft music coming from a bedroom...he'd picked up his blaster from the hall and given it a new plasma cartridge. He slowly opened the door to the room...the lights were dim and from here the music was much louder, accompanied by the impassioned cries of the one beneath him on the bed. The otter froze in place as he could hear the light hum of a charging blaster before the cold barrel tapped against his scalp, the white rabbit beneath him started to scream before Fox's free paw clamped her mouth shut...

"Not one sound...as you can see from my face I just had a seriously bad day." Fox said letting go of her mouth.

"Please don't kill me...I don't get paid enough for this." She cried.

"You..." Fox said turning back to this so called general, "Get off the rabbit..." Zeek complied as Fox kept his blaster to the otter's head. Fox then turned to the naked Lapin on the bed, "You...get dressed and get out. Make sure you take the stairs...elevator's out."

She didn't hesitate for a second before grabbing her things and rushing out the door...

"For the love of god let me put on some pants." Zeek cried wiping his short black hair from his eyes.

Fox put a bit more pressure behind the blaster, "You're in a bad position to be handing out orders. Get your fucking pants on."

After Zeek was half dressed Fox pushed him out of the room and into the kitchen, he was surprised that Zeek didn't have anything to say in his defense. Fox reached for the kitchen's coffee post and tore the cord from it, using it to tie the otter's paws behind him and to a rather thick pillar in the center of the living room. Fox then pulled over a rather long coffee table and set down a small round grenade and a roll of duct tape. He went about from here and there in the room gathering sheets and tying them together to form a crude rope...

"You know you'll never get out of here alive...Vera must have plenty of back up on the way right now." Zeek chuckled.

"Good..." Fox replied walking over to him, "Then we're gonna need to make this short. I know you work for Omni, and so do you so. Let's make this simple...Do you work for Omni?" Fox asked pulling his father's knife as he approached the frightened animal.

At first there was no reply until Zeek felt the sharp blade graze his neck, "Yes! Yes I do! I work for Omni!"

"Good boy...keep this up and you might live." Fox said, "Are they behind this war?"

"Y-y-yes..." Zeek was almost in tears.

"Why?"

"I--I don't know I'm just an underling. I just so what I'm told." Zeek creid.

"Fine...I can buy that." Fox said pulling his family photo out of his pocket. He stood behind the otter with and arm around his shoulder and his head just over the other hanging the photo in Zeek's face, "The white one on the right...where is she?"

"I don't know...I've never seen her before."

Fox slowly drug his knife across the general's chest causing him to cry out in pain, "Think...she's a Cerinian, dose that help?"

Zeek remained silent...this time Fox brought the point of his knife to the otter's shoulder and began to drive the blade in slowly so that he could feel every inch of flesh and sinew separate as the blade passed deep into him stopping on a bone...the whole time issuing a scream from Zeek that certainly caught the attention from people several floors down...but he still didn't talk. Fox slowly twisted the blade...

"OKAY!! OKAY!!" Zeek screamed causing Fox to halt his wrist's movement, "They moved her this morning, She's on board the Nemesis, heading for a stronger holding facility. Sargasso Station...Star Wolf's old hide out."

"What else should I know about Omni that I don't already?" Fox asked giving his knife a light jerk.

Zeek screamed in pain again, "AAAAHHHHHH!! They were behind everything...Andross's brother Cornelius runs the whole thing...he was the one that destroyed Cerinia. He's supplied Onkiney and Andross's fleets with countless weapons, he's even the one that ordered the vixen in the photo to be taken and to make her death as believeable as possible."

"Why are they keeping her alive?"

"Cor-Cornelius...when he took out Cerinia he was looking for something..."

Fox thought back, "A key?"

"No...no this was something bigger...said that it was some kind of weapon. The Cerinians were afraid of it and hid it somewhere cuz they couldn't find out how do destroy it. All Omni soldiers have orders to capture any Cerinian they can find for more information...if she's Cerinian that's why he's keeping her alive."

Having heard everything he needed Fox picked up the grenade and tape. He then tied a small piece of string around a strip of the tape and then walked to the otter...

"Open your mouth..." He demanded.

Zeek clamped his muzzle shut but then Fox's blaster was pressed into his forehead, "Open your god damn mouth."

Tears began to roll down the otter's cheeks and his chin trembled as he slowly opened his mouth. Foxy quickly stuffed the grenade into Zeek's maw and pulled the tape tight around the sides of his face. Fox then turned around and kicked the thick coffee table onto it's side tying it to the center of the table. Just as he saw the guards begin to flood through the door Fox dashed through the window that was behind him...the sheet rope gave a steady pull and swung him back into the side of the building through another window two floors down. There was a loud shriek as he stood up and dislodged a large shard of glass from his shoulder. The man of the two in bed looked to Fox...

"Who the fuck are you!?" He demanded.

"Window washer..." Fox replied barreling out of the room and down the hall.

He hurried his way downstairs before his balance was thrown off by an explosion that rocked the entire building. As he reached the first floor lobby Fox saw that his plan had worked...the explosion had caused a mass panic and animals where tearing through the lobby in large clusters in an attempt to get out of the building. He found one such cluster and followed it out of the building. The first thing he noticed when he got out was a dead raccoon, his body had annihilated the roof of a hover car. Fox made a rush for the alley where he'd parked his hover bike...but just as he was about to climb aboard the vehicle he could hear footsteps and a single person's applause. As he looked on this person wore a long black coat a lot like the red one Creed liked to wear, his fur was as black as the shadows that nearly concealed his body, a single white streak graced his long black hair...

"You're not an easy person to find..." He said in a rather light voice.

"You from Omni too?"

This strange fox stopped far enough away to let Fox know that the day's fighting wasn't done yet. Fox faced off with the stranger...he needed to get this over with quickly. He stepped forward slowly then shot into a rapid spin like he had with the raccoon...but as he ended his third spin Fox leaped into the air driving a diagonal kick across the black fox's face. The stranger's head simply moved to one side from the impact. As Fox landed the stranger shot at him with unnatural speed not giving him time to block the strike that plowed into his gut. It was a force unlike anything he'd ever experienced before, it felt as if the stranger's fist had been driven clean through his body, as his vision blurred Fox could see the black one's smile which faded as he found himself slipping into unconsciousness...

* * *

**AN: Okay that was a lot longer than most of my chapters but...I had some late posts to make up for. Hope you all enjoy reading...R&R...and thanx for the support people...till next time Cya **


	27. Chapter XXVI

-**Chapter XXVI**-

-One day later-

Groggy and disoriented Fox's vision faded back to him...his insides felt as if they'd been pulverized, he tried to move his arms but to his ultimate dismay they were tied behind him. He was seated in a rather uncomfortable wooden chair, there was a blinding light shining on his fare and his eyes hurt from the over exposure to it. He sat there for some time thinking to himself about what had happened...he recalled the black figure from the alley, the speed and power...he'd never seen anyone so powerful in his entire life. He didn't know why but he smelled Omni all over that guy and this situation. As he sat there what seemed like hours passed, his vision wasn't blurred so much anymore, he was in a small, dark room...this wasn't good. As he sat by waiting he could hear a door open and then close. One...no two sets of footsteps...

"Well then 'The' Fox McCloud...this is a rare treat isn't it?" Some voice said from the darkness.

"You sound pretty cocky for someone that's got a man tied to a chair."

The person chuckled to himself, "Oh where are my manners? The name's Gryph..." As the person spoke a rather well build white and red feathered avian stepped into the light, "The head man at Omni heard about that little snack you fed his replacement general..."

"Sorry...I was out of jawbreakers." Fox mustered a short grin.

"Ah funny man..." Gryph said chuckling a bit, "...lets see how well that holds up after a while hmm?"

The next ten minutes or so were spent with the avian slamming his fists into the vulpine's face and gut repeatedly but, when he finally stopped he realized that this nut would be particularly hard to crack. He'd keep punching, opening cuts swelling large bruises...but as many times as he asked for information Fox just laughed...

"You ready to talk yet?" The avian asked wiping the blood from his feathers.

Fox laughed as he spit a large clump of blood onto the avians finely tailored suit, "My ex punches harder."

The avian removed his jacket tossing it to the floor, "Well then..." He replied cracking his knuckles, "...maybe I'm just not trying hard enough."

* * *

-**The Dark Star**-

Krystal and the others couldn't help but to worry about Fox...the hyperdrive engines gave out on the Dark Star and they were forced to travel at as fast a speed as the normal engines would travel. Unfortunately that wasn't nearly fast enough it would still be hours before they arrived anywhere near Corneria...and with a flag ship the size of the Dark Star there was always the chance that, if there was a battle going on, they could get caught up in the struggle. Creed especially didn't like the fact that Fox hadn't called them yet, but he knew that there was something that he could do to help just in case. Nobody seemed to notice that he was not on the bridge, instead he made use of the personal communication system each room had. Creed sat on the bed in the room he shared with Silver and punched in a com channel he'd not used in practically forever...At first he wasn't sure whether or not there would be an answer but, as he was about to turn the device off the screen displayed the face of a dark gray furred timber wolf...his snow white hair was a bit longer than shoulder length, and his eyes were a deep hazel they almost appeared green...

"Creed?" The wolf asked.

"How's it going Jared?"

"Good enough..,accept for this nut case that won't leave my ass alone. It's nice to be wanted but not dead."

"Sleep with the wrong guy's daughter again?" Creed smirked.

"Actually I recently settled down...we'd get married soon if I could keep this guy off my ass."

"Well you still do your old job?"

Jared smiled, "Course I do...so dose she."

"Good cuz I have a job for you. A friend of mine went down to Corneria recently..."

"That hot blue chick?"

"Not exactly no. It's Fox McCloud..."

* * *

-**Unknown Location**-

Fox's head felt like it was about to split...he didn't remember loosing consciousness or when they had moved him to a small dark room. There was a large amount of caked blood on his face, he tried to stand but his ribs caused his legs to give out with a massive shot of pain. He could instantly feel that his jaw was dislocated which he quickly cured, taking his jaw in one hand and jolting it painfully back into it's socket, he managed to hold back the issued scream of pain. It was as he sat on the cold stone floor that he thought back to his insults on his attacker, and perhaps it wasn't the most intelligent thing to do at the time...or maybe it was...being out cold gives them more reason to back off for a bit. He'd always been told that when in these kind of situations not to give your attack any info...cuz if you do, chances are you wouldn't live to say so again. Fox checked over his injuries; his face was pretty badly beaten, left eye was swollen profusely and was sensitive to the touch, his ribs though he was sure weren't broken, felt like they were, and it hurt to even try to swallow the slop that they called food...rotten bits and leftovers from god only knows when...

"Looks like they plan on keeping me alive too." Fox said to himself while staring at the disgusting pile of refuse on the small metal tray, "...at least for now anyway."

Fox ate what he could, before his body threatened to bring it all back up...he'd never eaten anything so vile and disgusting in his life. He hoped that Krystal and Creed would come to help him but...they were the most wanted people on Corneria right now, the two wouldn't make it two blocks without a thousand animal on their asses trying to cash in on that reward. The mattress and blanket he had both lay on the cold floor, they smelled like mold and several other smells you wouldn't like sleeping on, but he was beaten and tired and needed his energy for later...he had to get out of this hell but how? For Fox the hours seemed to pass like days, the days like years, he didn't want to think about how his mother had been treated over the years. Every day his injuries piled up and then he was given the night to rest up for another beating the next morning...he felt as though he was loosing his mind. At some point he'd simply stopped eating, he couldn't hold down the stuff they brought to him, seemed like it would have been more decent to not feed him at all. By his third day there he was sick, he smelled horrible, he was dehydrated, and he seemed to have no energy at all...they were trying to break him. He picked up bits of what they told him, repeatedly asking about 'The Blade'...but Fox had no clue what they meant...so the beatings continued. On the morning of his fifth day there he was as every morning drug to the special room where his constant seat awaited him. The height of his slow, pain filled days was knowing how pissed off the thugs were when they realized they'd have to kill him before he'd say anything even if he did know it.

The day progressed...at some point you ignore the pain, it doesn't seem to really matter anymore. The only thing on his mind was his mother who as far as he was aware was getting the same treatment. After his normal treatment for a time the two that were working him over left the room...they always did this, they'd work him over a bit, take a break, then come back to start over again. Fox had been thinking up an escape plan over the passing days, and working on it every time they brought him into this room. The chair they used was metal, and poorly made metal at that, over the days as they beat him he'd been working the legs bending them a bit more every day. This time however as he worked the metal bars that acted as the chair's front most legs there was a creak from the worn and rusted metal which finally collapsed sending a shot of pain up his spine as his backside felt the chair's impact with the floor. Since his legs were now free he rolled back between the backrest of the chair and his arms placing them in front of him, it took almost no time to chew through the ropes that held him. As he stood he felt light headed, it'd been far too long since he'd had a decent meal, or something decent to drink...but food and water were the last things on his mind at the time. He picked up the two legs of the chair, one had broken off at a point, at least something in his week had turned out the right way. He kept his ear to the door, they'd come back and that's when they'd regret underestimating him...but he was growing impatient...not thinking clearly...thoughts of his mother being through the same treatment was clouding his mind, he for a brief moment considered bursting through the door and killing the first one he found...

_No..._ He thought to himself_...wait here, one of them has to have a weapon on them._

It had been so long since he'd had a decent meal...his vision was blurry from the hunger...he needed to get something into his system that wasn't trash or rotten. As his mind began to wander toward food, until the sound of approaching footsteps drew his attention only one kept approaching as the other sounded like it had detoured off to another room somewhere. He didn't care though he only hoped that the one heading for the room was that bastard Gryph. As the handle to the door turned, a familiar red and white form walked through yawning slightly before he swung the door shut...the avian froze as at the same time he noticed the destroyed chair in the center of the room the point of Fox's primitive weapon burst through his chest and was quickly withdrawn. The bird stumbled forward as he turned and attempted to walk toward the door, only to freeze at the sight of the horribly beaten face of Fox, that for the moment wore a murderous glare toward him. He tried to call for help but the only thing to come from his beak was a small pool of blood...

"Lung shot asshole..." Fox said flashing the small shard of bloody metal, "...you couldn't even manage a whisper."

The bird stumbled a bit further...

"How dose it feel?..." Fox asked following the bird to where he collapsed against the wall struggling to breath against the blood that rushed to his throat, "Knowing that there isn't a thing anyone can do to help you, to feel as hopeless at the number of animals you've done this too over the years."

Gryph looked to Fox for a moment...there was a time that the vulpine wouldn't have been able to watch him die, a time when he would have cared about the poor animal's suffering...but not after witnessing what an unknown number of animals had been through first hand. He almost took pride in what he'd done as he watched the light and life leave the bird's eyes, he didn't deserve to live. Fox went over the body as soon as there were no more signs of life, and reached for a holster strapped to his belt, a familiar black combat knife the bird had apparently intended to keep. The moment Fox's paw touched the handle of his father's old knife the bird's lifeless arms clasped to his wrist...but fell back to the floor as the metal shard in Fox's other paw was driven into his left eye.

"My knife..." Fox said searching further for more weapons...only finding a small blaster.

* * *

-**000**-

Fox peeked outside the room as he cracked the door a bit, the bright lights in the hall made him turn his head for a moment. As his eyes adjusted he noticed that there weren't any guards...then again he was tied down and had no clue where he was...what was he going to do? Run? To where? He thought about it himself for a moment but, something ensnared his senses causing his nose to twitch at the air...the smell alone caused his mouth to water. There was food nearby, just down the hall, it had been so long that his body seemed to naturally head down the hall. There were several doors but, only on the right side of the dimly lit hall. He made his way to the second door where he found the smell increased. He pushed the door open and walked inside, there was no one there...just a small plate sitting on a desk holding the object of his desire...it was a well stacked sandwich. He took no mind in shoving the half eaten object in his mouth not bothering to savor any on the many flavors he'd been denied over the last five days he'd been held there. After taking a moment to let his meal settle he noticed that this room was one big com room, the controls were familiar looking and there were many screens in front of him, but there was a logo that he'd never seen before printed on the large machine in front of him...a large O with a C at it's center a small ring wrapped around them both. Fox turned as he heard the door creak open the barrel of his blaster was met by the face of a familiar light cream furred collie...

"Fox..." She gasped covering her mouth.

"Oh god Angie...not you too." Fox said half to himself, "Get in here...and close the door."

Fox signaled for her to sit down in the small chair near the com station which she did, "Fox...I..."

"Shut up..." Fox half shouted, "12 years...we've known each other for over 12 years. I was your husband's best man because his brother died...why are you helping them do this to me?"

"I didn't have a choice Fox...everything about the military belongs to Omni...if I did anything to help you they'd have my family killed. What was I supposed to do? Anyone who stands up to them gets the same thing you did and worse...if you stand in Omni's way you're as good as dead."

"Turn around..." Fox said still keeping his blaster aimed at her.

Angie swallowed hard before turning to face the com system, "Please don't kill me Fox...I was only protecting my family."

Fox froze for a moment, "...Channel 147-86-60210...now."

Angie took a moment to punch in the numbers and allow the transmission to go through...for a moment Fox thought that there would be no reception but then to his great relief one of the small screens flashed on showing the worried face of a cerulean furred vixen, who jumped as she saw his face on her side of the transmission...

"FOX!! You're okay where the hell are you? And why are you with Angie?"

Fox nudged the blaster held to the collie's head, "We're under the Cornaria City Military base..."

"They own everything Krystal...they've been torturing me for the last five days asking me absurd questions that I don't have any answers too...and SHE was helping them." Fox finished pushing even harder against Angie's head with his blaster, causing the frightened canine to clench her eyes shut forcing several tears to roll down her face.

"Creed sent an old friend of his down there to find you but...I don't think he can get into the building."

"Nighttime would be the safest..." Angie said lowly, "They only place ten guards around this building during the night...Gryph is usually one of them."

"Who?" Krystal asked.

"Some dead guy." Fox replied.

"I can cover for that but...getting you out of the building without drawing attention to me is another question. The front door's always guarded..."

Fox didn't know whether or not he could trust Angie anymore but he did have an idea, "What about the roof?"

"No...it usually isn't guarded. Though a guard usually goes up there ever thirty minutes or so."

"All I need is a parachute..." Fox said, "This building's a bit over 50 stories up...more than enough for a base jump. If I jump from the south side of the building I've got a clear shot at the alley between Delling and Cray...straight shot right for the hanger where my arwing is docked."

"That sounds a bit risky...you'd only be airborne for a minute or so but...you'd be an open target if you were spotted. Couldn't we just beam you up with the ship's teleporter?" Krystal asked.

Fox shook his head, "Sorry Krys...but living matter is too complex. There's no telling what would happen if we did that...it could even reconstruct my molecules the wrong way. Just keep one of the emergency chutes ready to beam down as soon as I'm on the roof...I just need my communicator to give off the targeting signal."

"I know you don't want to believe me but...I can get you your communicator back..." Angie said.

Fox shared glances with Krystal, "You know what'll happen if you help me." Fox pointed out.

"I'd rather be able to still look my kids in the face without feeling like shit."

"Alright then...Krystal you wait for my call and tell that friend of Creeds where to meet me when I land. I'll she you in a few hours."

"Be careful Fox..."

Almost as soon at the transmission ended one of the screens began to flicker on, Angie made a quick motion shoving Fox to the ground beneath the desk. He still kept his blaster on her. He could hear the voice of the other on the line...

"Officer Porter...has Gryph reported anything from the prisoner?"

"No sir Sage...he gave up and cut out early...something about his knuckles needing a rest. The prisoner is back in his cell." Angie replied.

"He'll die before he says anything...well then...finish up your work there and make sure to pass off duty to Church."

"No problem Sarge there isn't much more I need to do...I should be out of your hair in about another hour or two."

The sergeant laughed a bit, "It's Church that gets under my skin Porter not you...just make sure you don't leave any of your things behind this time."

After the transmission was cut out Angie left the room for a minute, to Fox's great delight she soon returned with a small mess of food from the building's cafeteria, as well as something to drink, and his communicator. He hurriedly finished off the food in fear that he wouldn't have many chances if he were captured again. Angie however looked as though she was thinking of something...

"If you're worried about your family you should leave here as soon as possible...the planet I mean." Fox said stuffing a half eaten muffin in his mouth.

"Where would we go?"

"Kew...you should be able to find Falco and Katt there. You know Falco, he'll help."

"I-I should have done something about this...before you ended up in this condition...you're the last person that deserved this sort of treatment." Angie said.

"That's alright...it was about time for Karma to pay me a visit anyhow."

The collie looked at her watch, "We should go now. Just follow behind me in the hall to the elevators, there are no security cams down here...no video evidence."

The two made it down the halls, taking a turn at the end of the first one, they made it to the elevator without incident but, the lights above the door indicated that someone was on their way down to their level. Fox flattened himself against the wall next to the control panel while Angie stood there waiting for the lift to reach her, as the elevator gave off a confirming ding...Fox pulled his knife. From the stopped elevator and old white furred Manx stepped, there was a mess of aged gray about his face...

"Hey Claud..." Angie said, "Checking on the prisoner?"

"Yep...same time every night."

Before there could be a reaction Fox leaped from his position striking the cat over the back of the head with the butt of his knife...he couldn't willingly kill one so old. He dragged the old cat to the side and lay him somewhere safe, then the two got on the elevator, where Fox climbed through the service hatch in the metal box's roof...

"Just stay up there and when I get off on the first floor lobby...I'll send the lift to the top floor."

"Alright just make sure that you're away from this place before sunshine down there wakes up." Fox replied setting the service hatch's door back in place.

The ride was long and boring to before the elevator stopped, he could hear Angie whisper 'good luck', before the lift began to move again, unfortunately the moving box stopped again on the way up...he didn't count how many floors before it began to go down again. He moved to the side and took the rungs of the shaft's service latter in his paws which hung him in place for a moment as the elevator continued downward, he then began to climb for what seemed like forever to his starved body...his arms constantly cried out for him to stop but he reassured himself that he needed to reach the top floor as soon as possible. When he finally reached the top floor he pulled himself into an open vent shaft, and rested for a moment...it seemed to him that he was always winding up in the air ducts for some reason or other when he began to drag himself along the ducts until he found a small metal grate that looked out into the building's stairwell. He stuck his head out to look around for a moment and after seeing and hearing nothing he climbed out and headed up toward the roof. He stopped when he finally reached the rooftops, he was lucky enough to beat the guard's post up there. The fresh, cold air that blew through his fur forced him to stop for a moment...being held captive had a funny way of making you appreciate the smaller things a bit more than usual. He quickly made his way to the center or the roof and turned on his communicator before the building's alarms when off...

"FUCK!! Krystal get that parachute down here now!" He yelled into the device.

"It's on the way Fox."

He waited for a moment and began to panic, before a small ray of light seemed to come from the heavens forming a small pack on the ground a few feet to his left. After the parachute had fully formed and the lights were gone he quickly picked it up and strapped it to his back making sure the five point harness was secured before rushing over to the south side of the building. Unfortunately the winds were blowing westward, he took a moment to think before he heard the footsteps building behind the door. Without another thought Fox rushed toward the edge of the building leaping forward while spreading his arms in an attempt to clear as much space as possible without opening the chute. The sheer force of the wind tugged at his face seemingly tearing the tears from his eyes as gravity forced him toward the far off ground. Finally he pulled the pack's rip cord which jolted him uncomfortably to a much slower rate of fall. As he sailed on the air the wind that was blowing west let up and he guided himself down toward his destination where he could now see a set of figure's standing hear a waiting hovercar. Fox landed safely on top of a car some ways down the street, he reached over his shoulder and pulled the quick release to the chute's riging which sailed away like a grocery bag in the wind. Fox quickly ran toward the idling hovercar where a rather large gray furred timber wolf awaited him...

"Fox?" He asked.

"Pretty much..." Fox replied.

"Name's Jared...get in and lets get the hell out of here."

As the vehicle pulled out and down the alley Fox rested his head on the back of his seat...he'd had a very close call for a moment...much closer than even he may have thought. His breathing steadied, his heart rate fell back to it's normal beat, and before he could even thank Creed's friends he was out, the stress of the whole situation had taken it's toll on the poor animal...but in the end he was free.

"So this is the famous hero of Lylat...doesn't look like much dose he?" Jared asked.

"He might not look like much but he smells horrible..." The driver replied.

"True but...I don't think either of us could understand what he's been through."

* * *

-**Undisclosed Location**-

"Cornelius...sir." Elyna said as she entered the president's office.

Cornelius rubbed his temples, "What now?" He asked with a disappointed tone.

"We positively ID'd the one that Strider captured on Corneria."

"So...since Syler either doesn't know or won't tell who is this Scar person?"

"Fox Jamison McCloud sir...positive match with the DNA records." Elyna replied handing him a portfolio.

"Perhaps those speculations in the news were indeed speculations..." Cornelius said looking through the files until he came across a familiar photo of Fox and his family, "And this must be..."

"James and Vixy McCloud sir."

"So...that's what he's after is it? I remember the white one...where is she now?"

"Sargasso station future sight of the Omega complex sir."

Cornelius thought for a moment, "Send Strider there to keep an eye on things...and Syler send him as well."

"But sir he's not fully recovered..."

"Send him regardless...just in case." Cornelius replied.

"Yes sir...and you may want to know that Zeek is dead as well."

The president sighed with displeasure, "Send my son Gen he will make a fine general."

"Yes sir..." Elyna said walking out of the room.

Elsewhere in the same location Syler is found heavily bandaged but nonetheless working out to gather back lost strength...

"It's almost time...Project Zeta will be finished by my hand...not his..."

* * *

**AN: It may be some time before the next chapter is released...business is playing it's part in screwing me over on this one. Anyhow R&R...give a little feed back. Till nex time...Cya... **


	28. Chapter XXVII

**-Chapter XXVII**-

-Several Hours Later-

As Fox's arwing docked with the Dark Star his stomach turned over...his body was aware that there was food here...Angie had brought him enough to stage off the hunger for the time being but, not enough to make him happy. Naturally his mind wandered away from the small ship heading in behind him and he made his way toward the ship's kitchen, though his legs seemed to struggle to hold him up at times he refused to stop until his belly was full once again. Just as he reached the door a familiar form rushed to him locking him in a rather tight embrace. Fox pulled away from the pink rabbit who then got a clear look at his face...he looked terrible; cuts and bruises covered his face, there were heavy circles around his eyes, and his fur was matted and covered in dry blood from his many facial cuts...she also realized that he smelled absolutely horrid...

"My god what happened to you?" Roxy asked.

"I took a short vacation...in hell..." Fox said moving her to the side, "Now if you'll excuse me..." He replied walking through the kitchen door.

The room was empty...well at least until he sat down with his plate of food which was spilling over onto the table he sat at. He was still sitting there jamming endless amounts of foods into his mouth when the others all seemed to enter the room at once. Well almost everyone, though he was busy with his food Fox of course noticed that the most important person on the ship wasn't there, He lifted his gaze toward Creed while still chewing on a rather large chunk of steak...

"She's on the bridge...paying Jared for his help."

"Mmm." Fox grunted before turning his attention back to his food.

"What the fuck happened to you?" Creed asked, "You just take off like that all the time?"

"Sit down everyone...it's about time everyone here heard this." Fox said emptying his mouth, "I started doing mercinary work well over 15 years ago...I started as most know just after my father James was killed by Andross. What most don't know is that several years before that...when I was still pretty young...my mother was killed when my father's car was rigged with an explosive of some kind. It was supposedly Andross that set this to happen...my mom was just caught in the crossfire. Recently however..."

"The transmission...you found the meaning?" Creed cut in.

"Yeah...she never died...didn't even get in the car. Omni set it all up...the figurehead behind Omni has been looking for some ancient Cerinian weapon...they've been keeping her and from what I've heard several other Cerinians captive and are torturing them the same as me for information on it."

"Wait a minute...did you just say that your mom was a Cerinian?" Creed asked.

Fox nodded his head, "I was surprised at first too...but the more I thought about it the more sense it made...too many parts of my past just make too much more sense when I consider that she's a Cerinian."

"Dose Krystal know about this?" Creed asked.

"I can only speculate but I'm pretty sure she doesn't...and nobody here is to tell her. Got that?" Fox replied.

After everyone agreed he went on with telling them everything that he knew and had experienced over the last few days, the whole time never taking his mind off of his food...

"So then..." Creed said once he had heard everything, "I suppose that means we're headed to Sargasso Station."

"But that place will be crawling with Omni soldiers..." Lia quickly added.

"That's why I planned on going in alone." Fox replied, "I can't let you all risk yourselves...she's my mother, this is my problem."

"But..." Roxy started but was cut off by Creed.

"No...leave it be. It's his choice...best to just leave it or he'll run off again." As Creed said this the others headed out of the room, "And Fox..."

Fox looked up at the large vulpine...

"Take a fucking shower for Christ's sake."

Fox chuckled lightly at the statement he did smell awful after all. He finished his meal, though in no great hurry, and soon walked out of the kitchen with a happily full stomach. His legs still felt weak...then again for the last few days of his imprisonment he was for the most part kept awake, apparently they were attempting sleep deprivation after physical violence had heeded no success. Fox finally reached his room...it was a welcome sight away from the dark dank hole they kept him in on Corneria. He quickly stripped, happily tossing his raggedy blood-soaked clothes to one side before making his way into the bathroom where he once again enjoyed the warm waters of his own personal shower. As he stood there washing the days of blood and filth from his fur Fox began to think of something he'd not really thought about before. When he killed Gryph...he felt no remorse for the act, an emotion he'd gotten quite used to feeling after killing someone...Sure he had reason for killing the bird but, he had taken pleasure in it something that had never happened before...

"Maybe O'donnell was right all those years ago."

_You've become quite the killer Pup..._

Fox looked to his paws, "Is that all I am anymore?"

A few more minutes went by before he decided that he was clean enough, he made his way slowly out of the bathroom and into his bedroom. After sliding into a fresh pair of boxers he simply plopped himself down on his bed enjoying the comfort, and savoring the smell that his former love had left there. It seemed as though he had no control as he lay there, his eyes grew heavier by the second until he was snoring soundly...the first peaceful sleep he'd have in almost a week. It wasn't too long after this that a half exhausted blue vixen walked in...she'd gotten used to sleeping in the room and hadn't expected Fox to be there. He looked more like he was unconscious than asleep, his arms were limp at his sides and his legs were hanging over the foot of the bed. It was as she walked over to claim a pillow that she noticed something that he'd never done in his sleep before; his fingers as well as the corner of his mouth were twitching, not wildly but enough to draw her attention...yet the Fox she'd one shared a bed with never moved an inch after he was asleep, but this was none of her concern...or at least she refused to show any. As she walked toward the door with her pillow she froze as she heard something...

"rrrr...n-no..." Fox mumbled lightly.

Krystal dropped her pillow and walked slowly back over to the side of the bed...

"...k-kry--stal..."

She reached down and softly ran her paw along his face, and all of a sudden his eyes jutted open...but they were not his eyes; they were a sold shade of deep blue which seemed to pulsate with a glowing light. As his eyes met hers her heart raced, it was as if all the negative emotion in the universe was bearing down on her heart, and even though tears were involuntarily falling from her eyes from the sheer malice behind his eyes, she found it impossible to look away. Her breathing began to escalate, her whole body was shaking violently with fear, she wanted more than anything from hi to break his gaze until he finally lay his head back down and she felt the release of what ever she'd felt. As she sat there on the floor attempting to calm her trembling body, she looked to the once again sleeping fox...for the first time when she looked at him...it was with fear..

With tears still in her eyes she stroked his cheek, "Fox what's happening to you?"

* * *

-**000**-

Krystal had fallen asleep on the bridge in the captain's seat, her entire experience from the other night played over and over in the back of her mind as she fought against her restless mind for any bit of sleep she could win...but her struggle over her own conscious mind was in vein. She could do no more then toss and turn attempting to find some sort of solace, some sort of comfort that would allow her to get some sleep but, there was just something about his eyes when he'd looked at her...was he even aware of what he was doing? She doubted it, he'd never looked at her like that before, and even if he was asleep at the time she'd also never been more frightened in her life. She tried to place what she'd experienced with what had happened at the Beta Complex...all the pieces pointed in one direction...Cerinian, but was that even possible? When they were together he'd mentioned that his mother was different and all but. As she kept thinking she crossed her arms over her stomach, all the stress was doing a number on her, it was even beginning to make her physically ill. Finally giving in to the pain she got up and headed to the kitchen...maybe she was just hungry she hadn't really ate much recently. It really irritated her that Fox's situations had this kind of effect on her...she could be stern and strong around others but, once she was alone all of that melted away. She though going back to being friends would at the least make things a bit easier but, it was no help. Her thoughts were cut off as she entered the kitchen as she could hear the sound of someone rustling through the fridge. As she rounded the corner she could see a familiar bushy reddish-brown tail swaying about...she couldn't help but to stare...she'd never been too proud to admit that he always had a nice butt...

She smiled, "Hungry?" She asked.

The sudden word caused Fox to jump banging his head on the inside of the fridge, "Oww..." He mumbled rubbing his sore head with one hand while holding several things of food in his other arm, "Yeah, I haven't had a decent meal in nearly a week...What about you?"

"That's what I'm in here for..." Krystal responded.

"Then have a seat...I'll make you something too..."

Krystal shrugged her shoulders and sat down, "So...you feeling any better?"

"A bit..." Fox replied as the smell of cooking meat filled the room, "...still pretty damn hungry...but I'll get over it."

Krystal simply sat there for a while, "Fox...why did you run off like that?"

"It's a family matter." Fox said not wanting to give her any more to deal with as he could tell she was stressed.

"What kind of family matter?" She replied.

Fox sighed as he realized that she wasn't going to give it up, "My mother isn't dead...Omni has her held down at Wolf's old base. Apparently they have a number of animals there that they've been grilling for years about some kind of ancient Cerinian weapon..."

That caught Krystal's attention, "What kind of weapon?"

"One strong enough to kill for...strong enough for the Cerinians to hide from everyone."

"I wonder..." The blue vixen mumbled to herself.

"Wonder what?" Fox asked laying a plate in front of her.

"Well I'm not sure but...when I was young Arlex once told me a story..." She said as she let her food cool a bit, "You see long ago Cerinians were very advanced, they used technology for everything, primarily warfare. One day a great Cerinian made something wondrous in those days, a single weapon, the most perfect fusion of technology and magic the universe had ever seen. It was supposedly only ever used once against a waring planet..."

"And what dose the legend say about the outcome?" Fox asked swallowing a bit of food.

"The entire planet was not destroyed...rather...there was nothing left at all...not even dust. After such devastation the elder Cerinians decided that our technology was growing out of control if it could lead to the creation of such a tool of death. Our technologies were all abandoned spare a few minor things that were deemed unimportant...but important enough to keep around, the main thing being our escape ships just in case. After all of that the weapon was still left...they tried everything to dispose of the weapon but in the end it proved to be a bit more than a bother destroying...their result was simply a shattered weapon. The pieces were scattered throughout the galaxy. Supposedly that was about 20,000 years ago so...the solidity of that tale is most likely rather slim..."

"Wow...Andross would have given anything to get his paws on something like that." Fox said as Krystal started to eat, "Did that Arlex guy ever mention what exactly the weapon did or looked like?"

"Well the weapon was called The Blade of Ages...so I'd suppose it was some sort of sharp object or other...you know considering the fact that it most likely is just an old story...as for what it would do if it did exist I don't have a clue."

"Good chance that it isn't what they're looking for then huh?"

Krystal scoffed, "Yeah a pretty good chance..."

There was a long silence in the room at they continued to eat...their conversation had nothing to do with what was really on either of their minds. They didn't say a word to one another, even though they both wanted to, there were so many questions that came to Krystal's mind but not one that she could actually think of to actually ask him. He wasn't about to lie...he could see it in her eyes, she wanted to know what had happened to him but didn't want to ask him...

"You wanna ask me something Krys?"

"Are you a..." She was cut off.

"Cerinian? Why would that change anything?"

She remained silent...

"That's what I thought...so then what dose it matter?"

"WHY DO WE ALWAYS HAVE TO FALL INTO THIS WHEN WE TALK!?" Krystal screamed with frustration, "You said this was all finished and that we'd stop going through this. So why are you bringing it up again?"

"BECAUSE!!...I...just...forget it." Fox stopped himself from shouting as he stood and walked out of the room.

Krystal threw her fork to the ground and followed behind him, for and injured fox he was moving relatively fast down the halls until they reached the bridge. When Krystal finally stopped him she swiftly punched him in the jaw which sent him reeling back falling over his captain's seat, "STOP WALKING AWAY FROM ME DAMN IT!!" She exclaimed, "You think this is any easier on me than it is on you?"

"Yeah and you know why?" Fox inquired finding his strength to stand up, "I just spent five days in the worst sort of situation I've ever been in and over ninety percent of that time you were the only thing I was worried about...just you and my mom...nothing else mattered... It is tougher on me because day after day I have to wake up and live on this ship with the one person that I love but can never have..." He said, "You already said you're over me...that's just the problem...nothing in this universe will ever get me over you. And the worst part is, that no matter what I do or how much I apologize you'll never really believe in my reasons for what I did..." By now his tears were leaving streaks on his face, "I love you Krystal...and I always will...but it's pretty fucking obvious that you didn't care half as much for me as I did for you. You were so quick to jump to the worst possible conclusion of the situation..." Fox said pulling something from under his shirt on a small chain and throwing it to her feet, "...that you didn't even stop to think about why I left you where the war couldn't reach you."

As he left the room the impact of his words brought a tear to her eyes, and as she attempted to wipe them away she bent down and grabbed the small gold chain by it's now broken ends, and lifted it so that she could see a small ruby tipped, platinum band suspended from it, Fox's plans instantly became obvious to her. The weight of the instant guild she felt forced her to her knees as she clutched the small thing to her chest, she had always blamed Fox for the way she felt, for ruining the first love she'd ever had...only to realize that she'd been the one doing the damage to what could have been a happy future. Arlex had always told her that her bullheadedness would eventually hurt her but she never really believed him until now...but now was far too late...

Fox sat in the cockpit of his arwing trying to stop the thoughts and replays of his argument with Krystal...

"MIA...plot a course for Sargasso Station. Don't get too close...stay out of the range of any long range scanners."

"Yes captain..." The ship's voice replied, "Course set ETA approximately 4 hours."

"If I'm asleep by then give me a wake up call and isolate it to the docking bay only."

* * *

**AN: sorry...this turned out to be a shorter chapter but that's okay cuz the next will get into some action as Fox is out to save his long lost mother...things could get pretty bad...R&R and I hope you enjoy the fic...till nex time...Cya**


	29. Chapter XXVIII

-**Chapter XXVIII**-

-Somewhere near Sargasso Station-

Fox jolted from his sleep from the slight siren sound that went off as he requested...

"Destination reached..." MIA's voice sounded, "...current distance from Sargasso Station. 4.25 light minutes."

Fox sat up and quickly jumped out of his arwing before looking to the clock on his communicator...it was 6am. Fox started to gather together some things that he deemed might help him with what he would have to do, his only problem was finding a way inside without being discovered as an intruder...for a moment he thought of just barreling through the place killing anyone that got in his way but, in the end decided that it was most likely not the best approach to the situation. As he stuffed things into his arwing's cargo bay his ear twitched toward the sound of the opening docking bay door...the silently light footsteps was enough to tell him who it was...

"What's up Silver?"

"I—heard the two of you yelling last night...are you leaving?" The silver fox asked.

"Not permanently no..."

"Do you two hate each other?"

Fox looked at the young vulpine with confusion, "Why would you think that?"

"There is always such tension when you are together...even when you try not to show it. In the movies you gave me the people often talk and yell at one another the way you did with one another...but it always seems to get better near the end of the story..."

Fox pressed a button causing the cargo bay to close on his arwing, "That's the great thing about stories Silver. No matter what happens you can almost always be assured that it will have a happy ending. Real life just isn't that simple...you want real life...read Romeo and Juliet sometime."

"What's that?"

Fox sighed and leaned against the hull of his ship, "It's a story...a very old love story. You see these two young people fall in love but, their families have always been at war. One day the two decide to run away together but everything goes wrong...and in the end the only thing they can share together is death."

"That—that's terrible."

"War breeds tragedy kid..."

"That was something else I wanted to ask you." Silver said, "In the stories that I've read and seen in the movies, love causes strife, pain, and even war...but it also brings happiness...and yet so many seem too search their entire lives for it. Is something that causes so much pain really worth looking for in life?"

"Oh it is..." Fox said, "It leads people into some pretty bad situations, but it has some positive outcomes."

"Like what?" Silver asked.

Fox smiled, "Well...family for one, always having them there, and some...er...physical pleasures as well." He said with a slight chuckle, "The thing is you should be strong enough for love to work...and apparently I just wasn't strong enough."

"But...besides Creed you're one of the strongest people I know..."

"There's a lot more to strength than what lies on the outside kid..." Silver gave him a confused look, "Listen you care a lot about Roxy, right?"

"Of course I do..."

"How far would you go to keep her safe? Would you be willing to die?"

After a brief moment of thought Silver looked to Fox, "Yes...I would."

"Now what about her feelings. Would you be willing to hurt her to keep her safe? Would you break her heart if it meant it'd keep her alive?"

The silver youth went silent in thought...

"Tough call isn't it?"

"Not really..." Silver replied, "The answer is clear to me...between my happiness and her life, her life is clearly the more important of the two...but so is her happiness. If there were a way to do so without hurting her then yes I would, but, if not then no. I'd never do anything to hurt her in any way."

"Let me know how that works out for ya..." Fox said turning back toward his arwing, "Look kid...don't take this the wrong way but I lied. I probably won't come back...and I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone."

Silver almost looked hurt, "But...why?"

"It's complicated okay...I just don't want to see her like that anymore and I'm the cause."

"How are you going to get into that place...you know it has to be well guarded."

"Standard emergency refueling...all space stations are equipped to handle the procedure. Then as soon as I'm left alone I'll make my way around the station and find my mom."

Silver couldn't think of anything else to do or say, so he simply shook Fox's hand, "Thank you for everything Scar."

Fox smiled as they broke their hand shake, and pulled the silver fox into a hug, "I'm gonna miss you kid." He said releasing the young fox, "Take care of everyone alright..."

"Sure..."

Silver didn't want to see one of his first and only friends leave but for the most part he understood why Fox was doing it. He simply stood there and watched as Fox's arwing jetted out of the docking bay. Fox felt badly for leaving everyone in their current situation but, figured they'd be better off without him. It was as his arwing sailed through the dead of space that his mind began to work against him, feeding him guilt for leaving his friends behind. The smell of fresh blueberries filled his senses...it was that same sent that Krystal wore so often that it seemed to him to be her natural scent. He found it in himself to somehow ignore the smell and concentrate on the mission at hand...to save his mother...

* * *

-**about 20 minutes later**-

Silver walked onto the bridge where Creed had taken the captain's seat, and his friend Jared and his girlfriend Shera stood nearby; this was the first time Silver had seen the female before, she was of a slightly athletic build, with fur like pure snow, and very light blue eyes, there was a small scar that slid round the side of her neck disappearing below the collar or her shirt, her bushy Lupine tail was tied down at it's base, and her long white hair was fixed into a loose pony tail...

"So he left already?" He asked.

"Yeah he's gone." Silver replied.

"Good I hope he finds what he's looking for."

The two sat there for a short while simply watching the lone arwing pull farther and farther away, as they did Roxy and Lia walked onto the bridge both looking a bit confused...

"Have any of you two seen Krystal..." Roxy asked, "I can't find her anywhere..."

* * *

-**Sargasso Station**-

Fox had no trouble getting clearance as he'd done several things to his arwing to make sure there was no other recourse but to land, he tried to make sure he was unrecognizable as possible by wearing his shades and a different uniform; just a pair of black jeans and a matching tank top. The docking area of the massive station was the same as always...as he disembarked from his arwing he was of course greeted by two soldiers, they didn't seem like Omni soldiers at all; one was a badger who kept his visor open, Fox could relate he hated those things too, and the other was a light tan bear who was lighting up a large cigar...

"Some sort of problem here sir?" The badger asked.

"No I just need use of your docking bay to fix this piece of shit..." Fox replied kicking the hull of the arwing.

"What went wrong with her?" The bear asked examining the ship.

"Calibration drives as far as I can tell...throttle was a bit grabby on the way in here too, and it wouldn't hurt to check over the G-diffuser while I'm at it, can't be too careful."

The two soldiers moved away and talked among themselves for a moment before turning back around, "Well...it's against protocol but, they aren't paying us enough for this anyway...you're restricted to this area. Just get your repairs done ASAP, alright?"

"Will do...thank you sirs." Fox replied.

"Don't mention it..." The bear said as they began to walk back to their posts

Fox was a bit nervous for a bit but it all passed. He then took his time to look around the massive docking bay; there weren't a mass number of ship...mainly small transports and one massive one, it was a large chrome and gray ship that had a triangular shape to it, it could have easily made up more than five of the Dark Star. Fox knew the SS Nemesis for it's reputation of having the most firepower for a ship of it's class, he had thought this through somewhat but, as he opened his arwing's cargo bay that smell hit him again...it wasn't very powerful but it was a smell that he'd grown accustomed to over the years. He was even more surprised and a bit angry when he saw a pair of familiar blue orbs hiding behind some of his cargo in the far back of the cargo bay. He didn't say a word, he simply picked up a two small disc-shaped objects, as he walked around the ship he pressed a small button on one of the disks and began to at least act like he was working on his ship...

"You wanna explain what you're doing in there?" He whispered as he was sticking close to the cargo bay.

"I don't need to explain myself. Not coming back...you explain." Krystal retorted in a very low voice.

"How fucking long have you been in there?"

"Mmm...long enough to know how cramped it is in here."

Fox sighed, "There's a cloaking device in there someplace...turn it on and get out here."

Fox could hear her unseen footsteps as Krystal stepped out of the small ship's cargo bay, she simply studied the area for a while. After a bit of time she sighed...

"How are you going to find her in this?"

"Well since you're here and invisible...you can scout ahead while I set up for the break out. If you think you found her, her name is Vixy."

"No problem...I'll be back..."

Fox was still a bit peeved that she'd stowed away but, at the same time he was happy, of all the people that could have followed him she was the one he'd secretly hoped would. For hours he went about what appeared to be standard procedure, he even took the time to actually recalibrate some of his ariwing's drive systems while he was at it...while at the same time preparing to disappear himself. That is until one of the two soldiers from before approached him...The brown bear had something in his paws, drinks...

"You've been working on that for a while..." He said sitting on a nearby crate, "...beer?"

Fox thought for a moment, "Meh what the hell?" He said taking the icy bottle from the bear.

"Name's John..." The bear said as Fox sat down on his own crate.

Fox extended a paw to the bear, "Aryn..." The bear shook it, "So what the hell happened here? I thought I'd see O'donnell again."

"You friends with that old psycho?"

"You could say that yeah...we've been around." Fox replied.

"Honestly I ain't got a clue what the fuck is going on here...I'm just a mercenary being paid to guard the docking bay...fucking shitty ass wages too. Omni guys are all over the place though. They don't tell us shit...Fen seems to be handling it alright but, I don't know I miss flying."

"Can't say that I blame you there man...I couldn't live without that old pile." Fox replied looking toward his arwing.

"Hmm..." John hummed, "You're a merc too eh?"

"Lot of good it dose me...ninety percent of the time I barely have enough money to keep fuel in that ship."

John nodded, "Mmm. I can relate to that...only reason I'm even here, I don't trust these Omni bastards as far as I could throw a Luxonian."

Fox's thoughts wandered for a moment, "That ship over there...it's the Nemesis isn't it?"

"Yep...one of the strongest ships in the entire Lylat system...don't know what it is they're transporting but, I get this strange feeling in the back of my neck every time I walk by it."

"Well..." Fox said standing up, "...thanks for the drink but I think I should get back to work so I can get the hell out of here."

"Yeah I should get back too work too..." John said a bit annoyed.

Fox simply went back to work, at least until he heard something shift on the inside of his arwing's cargo bay. When he examined the interior his eyes were met by the light blue eyes of a familiar vixen...

"Well..." He whispered.

"That big ship...the brig is full of Cerinians and one white vixen...they looked pretty bad." Her eyes froze as Fox felt something press against the back of his skull.

"Don't fucking move..." John's voice said calmly, "Now who the fuck are you really and what are you doing here?"

"Most people call me Scar...but..." Fox said turning to face the bear, "You can call me Fox if you like."

"That's a hell of a claim...considering that McCloud's dead." John's rifle never left it's position as he backed away slightly making sure the fox couldn't strip him of his weapon.

"Wrong..." Fox said, "Think about your source for that information for just one second...Omni right?"

John's eyes moved around a bit but he never faltered, "Listen...I really don't want to hurt you John...you seem like a reasonable animal. I'm just here to get my mom out of that ship..." He said pointing toward the Nemesis, "I haven't seen her in almost 20 years. You have any idea what it's like to think your mom's dead only to find that she's been alive."

"Can't say that I do." John replied, "So what? I'm just supposed to let you go?"

"Frankly I could care less what you do John...but, honestly I'd rather not kill you." Fox said turning and helping Krystal out of the cargo bay, "I've been doing nothing but ending lives for as long as I can remember. I'm tired of it...I realized that when I killed the one that was holding me captive on Corneria. When you stop caring about ending life...you're way too familiar with it."

John looked as if he were conflicting with himself about what to do...part of him wanted to let them go but, another wanted to turn them in for the money that he would definitely receive...he was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard another weapon charge itself from behind him, Fen had seen the act and rushed to his side, "What's going on John?"

John sighed a bit, "Sorry Fen..."

The badger looked confused, "Wha..."

Fen was cut short as the butt of his partner's rifle struck the side of his face laying him to the unforgiving metal floor. He shook his head as he looked to the unconscious badger...It was the end of a long partnership, "I'm in...but you two are going to explain everything once we're all out of here got that?"

Fox smiled he'd always been a good judge of character, "I'm glad I didn't have to kill you John. This is Krystal I'm sure you've read about her too...I can assure you it's all lies."

"You have cloaking devices in there right?" John asked receiving a nod from them both, "Good you two head in there and get what you needed. I'll deal with Fen and move your arwing into our ship's docking bay where it won't be noticed...ours is the small gray transport over there."

The bear lifted his former partner onto his shoulder and began to walk off, "Wait..." Krystal said causing him to stop, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it...I mean what are the chances of me getting to work with two members of Star Fox again? Best to take advantage of this while I can." John said wearing a large grin, "Oh and there's this real fucking weird guy roaming around here. Wearing all black, black fur...really gives me the creeps."

"You catch a name...cuz that sounds a lot like the fucker that kidnapped me on Corneria."

"I think they called him Strider..." John replied, "Steer clear of him if you can though...something ain't right about that guy."

"Yeah I know what you mean...Don't worry about it. I don't have any intention of putting my mom in any more danger than she already is." Fox replied.

As John walked off Krystal and Fox activated their cloaking devices and Krystal led Fox by the paw to the ship where his mother was being held. The interior of the ship was almost just like that of the Dark Star, the walls were all chrome, there were differences here and there but for the most part the only difference was the massive size of the Nemesis. The halls were so wide that Krystal and Fox could walk abreast and not worry about walking into a passerby. It was one of the largest ships that Krystal had ever seen...next to the EvenStar which she had been aboard while the Star Fox team was still around. They seemed to move through endless hallways before finally they ended near a pair of elevators. Once they were aboard the lifts Krystal spoke up...

"This ship has 12 decks...the brig is on the 8th...while I was down there I only ran into 6 guards...two were guarding the brig itself."

"Good...two of them two of us. You don't know how much I appreciate this Krys..." The invisible vulpine said, "...I know I was going to leave but...I'm really glad you're the one that followed me. Thank you..."

Krystal giggled as she nudged him with her shoulder, "Hey...someone's gotta keep your ass in line right?"

Fox almost laughed out loud at the fact that she sounded like Peppy, "Yeah...sure, but at least my babysitter isn't as ugly as sin itself." He replied, "Then again there are those mornings when you wake up and your fur is set just the right--Ow!"

He wasn't sure whether that was a punch or a kick but, it was dangerously low so he pulled back on the jokes...

"Sorry just trying to get rid of the tension."

"Don't bother cuz if we're caught breaking anyone out of here there's bound to be plenty of it flying around." Krystal remarked as the elevator came to a stop.

When the elevator doors slid open a guard looked inside, his face covered by an odd looking mask that had a visor and two small round objects full of holes on either side of his muzzle. When he saw there was nobody there he stepped inside , Fox and Krystal silently stepped around him and headed through the door. The brig was large but, luckily there was only one cell...a massive one. The room was very dimly lit by a flickering light high above them. Fox stopped when he saw the occupants, every fur was a beaten and stale mixture of red and blue; some huddled together in corners hoping that when the guards came they weren't next. Fox removed his shades for a moment in disbelief before setting them back on his none existent face. Some of the Cerinians inside were only kits, not even half Fox's size, covered in dried blood and bruises, most of them lucky enough to be in a parent's arms at the moment...

"Krystal go keep an eye out while I find my mom and a way to open the door..." Fox said releasing his unseen guide's paw, "...can they all understand me?"

"They should...if they've been here all that long."

"Good go check on those guards. If they head this way give me some sort of signal..."

"Gotcha' ...What about him though?" Krystal asked pointing to the animal that was now sending the elevator back to the top floor.

"Leave him to me just go."

* * *

-**000**-

Her light footsteps soon vanished into the distance. Suddenly a sharp sound of something falling distracted the guard's attention who walked past the invisible fox that stood near the cell full of Cerinians. As he came back with a small pipe that had fallen which he tossed aside, the elevator door was forced open, this really got his attention and the animal rushed to the door pointing his assault rifle into the now open shaft. A young Cerinian sitting by the cell door noticed something; the pipe the guard had discarded was floating and bobbing about as though in the paw of a walking animal...the young boy couldn't say anything from the shock of what he was seeing and began to push at his exhausted mother's shoulder who soon looked to what her kit was pointing at with a confused look. The guard turned on his flashlight and looked up the shaft then down it...there was nothing there. As he withdrew his light something tapped him on the shoulder but, just as he turned thinking he'd find one of the other guards, the seemingly possessed piece of metal connected with the end of his muzzle. As Fox watched on blood began to pour from the small round cylinders on the sides of his mask before he stumbled back falling into the empty shaft. Fox dropped the now bloody pipe and turned off his cloaking device to save whatever time was left on it...

"Well..." He said dusting off his paws, "...that takes care of him."

Fox pressed the button to call the elevator and rushed over to the closest two he could which turned out to be the ones that had watched him send the guard, plummeting to a horrible death. The kit had his face buried in his mother's chest who was holding the little one tightly...

"Just leave us alone...we don't know anything..." She practically pleaded gathering a bit of attention form the others.

As he looked into the cell he noticed that not one of them was well fed, they were kept near starvation to keep their willpower at it's lowest, they were all bloody and beaten, most of them were in such need of food that their ribs stuck out repulsively. It was the saddest sight Fox had ever seen...all of this torture over a fucking weapon...

"Boy do you have the wrong idea..." Fox said, "I'm here to get you all out of here...Is there a white furred vixen in there with you?"

"Yes..." The Cerinian vixen answered pointing to the far side of the cell, "She never leaves that spot."

As Fox made his way around to the far side of the cell he could see a small ball of white among the large patches of blue...she really was alive, and sitting right there not ten feet from him...

"Hey you..."

Her white furred ears stiffened as an all but familiar voice rang through her senses, she stood and for a moment refused to turn, in fear that it was all just a cruel game to break her down again...

"J-james?"

For Fox the sound of her rattled voice calling for his father was torture unto itself causing tears to roll down his cheeks, "Not really...but close enough...mom."

Her back went rigid at the sound of that last word causing her to suddenly turn to face him, it had to be her son, why else would there be someone that looked so much like James? Who sounded just like him. She looked terrible, the snow white fur that Fox scarcely recalled had none of the angelic luster that he was accustomed to, she was as terribly malnourished as the others, and her left arm hung lifelessly to her side...her tears were already leaving long streaks under her eyes...

"Fox?" She asked with a voice of sheer disbelief.

"It's me mom..."

With that last confirmation the vixen hurried to the bars, nearly forcing her son through them with her one good arm, Fox didn't waste any time to return the gesture. He couldn't believe it, he half expected to wake up at any moment to realize that it was all a dream...but to his horror and great happiness when he released his hold to wipe the tears from his eyes she was still staring at him...

"You've grown up big..." She said proudly ash she wiped away her own tears, "Even bigger than your father."

"Well...he was a lot of man to live up to..." Fox replied, "...but we can get reacquainted later. How the hell do I get this cell open?"

A thin looking but well built male Cerinian approached the bars and sniffed the air, "There's a Cerinian here with you isn't there?" He asked.

"Yeah...How'd you know that?" Fox asked.

"I know my sister's sent anywhere."

Fox didn't really believe his ears, "Krystal's brother? Boy is she gonna be surprised. Wouldn't know how to get that door open would you?"

"One of the guards used his paw..."

Fox froze up for a moment, "It wasn't the one that got the shaft was it?"

Krystal's brother didn't understand until Fox pointed to the elevator, "Oh no...it wasn't him."

"Alright then...go back to what you were all doing...I'll be back...if I have to rip the fucker's paw off myself."

Fox activated his cloaking device vanishing from sight...he didn't even seem to notice the fact that not one of the caged vulpines would get near his mother. His mind now was on getting to where Krystal was. He pulled a small device from his pocket and after removing his shades placed it up to his eye, causing everything to become colored like the vision of a serpent. As he made his way through the halls he knew that he'd found he crouched behind a crate watching several animals that were playing cards at a small table. He could see her form clearly outlined in reds and oranges, her tail swishing back and forth...even in infrared he couldn't help but to stare a little...

"Hey..." He said softly.

She would have been surprised but she was too familiar with Fox's voice, "Did you get to talk to her?"

"Yeah but...apparently our key to the cell is at the end of one of their arms. There's four of them...even if we kill 'em all they would have too much time to call for help." Fox pointed out.

"I'd take over one of their minds but...I don't know which one it is."

"Just probe around until you find the right one..." Fox suggested.

Krystal thought for a moment and then began to concentrate but recoiled, "W-what the hell was that?" She asked placing her paw on her head.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't get into their heads...It actually hurts to try."

Fox sighed, "Should have known better. If it were that easy the Cerinians would've done it a long time ago."

"Then what are we gonna do?" Krystal asked.

"Well we could run in there and kill 'em all...hope none of them get a chance to radio for help." Fox said resting a paw on her shoulder, "Then again there are only four guards in there...two look a bit more than wasted on that cheap beer. So I'm pretty sure we can count them away from being our key..."

"Why's that?" Krystal asked.

"They're half drunk so...they're most likely not on duty. The brown wolf however keeps checking his watch so I'm guessing he is. As for the chipmunk...well I'm not so sure he seems pretty calm...he's about to win this hand too."

Just after saying so the others set down their cards and all seemed a bit disturbed by the chipmunk's hand, "How did you do that?" Krystal asked.

"He's won the last two hands...he's cheating." Fox pointed out, "Falco used to do the same thing...See the way he keeps his left paw on his neck? Hidden cards."

After a short while the brown furred wolf stood up stretching his back...

"I'm out guys gotta get back to my post before Kramer crawls up my fucking ass again."

"Yeah...put yer ass through hell last week huh?" The chipmunk asked.

"Yeah...no shit..."

"Hahahah...yeah. Just don't get too close to that cell...you remember what happened when that white one got a hold of Miles's arm. She's a tricky little bitch too."

The wolf walked by and headed down toward the cell...Fox and Krystal silently shadowed the unsuspecting lupine. The Cerinians oddly enough didn't seem to be afraid of him. Which caught Fox off his guard...this wasn't the one he needed...and he realized that as he approached the cell pulling something form his pockets and handing it too one of the blue vixens that had gathered around...

"I'm sorry but that was all I could get by everyone..."

Fox watched as the blue furred foxes began to pass what small scraps of foot their secret helper had managed to sneak to them, his eyes however widened as he saw them pass up his mother. In a huff of anger Fox walked up behind the wolf gripping him from behind and placing his father's knife to his neck...

"Where's the key?"

"Listen if you're here to save them maybe I can help an--"

"No Fuck them...Just the white one. After seeing that the others can fucking die for all I care."

Krystal's brother rushed to the bars, "What are you talking about? You said all of us."

"That was before I realized that you'd let one of your own starve to death."

Krystal turned off her cloaking device and ran up to the bars, "Voss what the hell is wrong with you? Father taught you better than that. At least I thought he did."

Voss was stunned, "L-little...sister?"

"HEY!! JULIUS!! SHUT THOSE FUCKERS UP WE'RE TRYING TO HAVE A GAME BACK HERE!!"

"NO PROBLEM!!" The wolf yelled back, "You all want to keep it down? Before you get us all killed."

Still holding the wolf at knife point Fox looked back to him, "Sorry...Now what the hell is going on Krystal?"

"Stupid ass Cerinian law...says that a woman has to marry within the tribe or be banished." Krystal answered, "Well then Voss...are you going to treat me like this too? Because I didn't even know you were here. I came with him because I love him." Fox could have sworn he saw a smile tug at the corner of his mother's mouth.

Fox turned away from the cell only to feel a paw on his shoulder, "Fox..." His mother's voice said, "You can't condemn them for the way they are. Why do you think I left that planet with your father? I knew I couldn't change them...as I'm sure this young lady's taught you. Our people can be pretty set in our ways...it's the Cerinian's greatest downfall."

"Yeah..." Julius added, "...and could you please let me go? This is uncomfortable and...that knife is really sharp." Fox let him go, "Also what happened to Charlie?...the Manx that was down here on guard duty."

Fox looked about as he put away his knife, "Umm...well. Last time I saw him he was falling toward a long dark sleep." Fox got a blank look from the wolf, "Okay okay...I chucked him down the elevator shaft."

"Oh alright then...can't say he didn't deserve that." Julius replied.

"Well if it makes you feel any better chances are he was dead before he fell..." Fox pointed out the bloody pipe laying near the far wall.

"Hmm...oddly enough that dose make me feel a bit better." The wolf sighed, "But I think she's right..."

"He may be an ass...but he is my brother Fox."

His mother was one thing but there was no way he could say no to both Krystal and his mother, "Fine...Julius right?" He asked turning to the wolf.

"Yes..."

"Let's go get the key..." Fox sighed, "Krys...you stay here. Anyone comes through that elevator get back to me and we'll work from there."

Fox and Julius walked back toward the small game room, "So that's the guy you chose huh?" Voss asked, "You happy?"

"What's it matter? He's an outsider right?"

"You know you sound just like father?" Voss pointed out.

"That's funny because you're acting just like mom. She hated anything that was different too." Krystal decided to completely step away from this fight and turned toward Vixy, "Mrs. McCloud?"

"Yes dear...Krystal right?" Vixy replied.

"That's right..." Krystal smiled, "Can I see your arm?" As soon as Krystal held the white vixen's limp arm she looked accusingly to her brother, "I guess you were just going to leave her like this too huh? Well if you think your paw won't fall off hold her mouth shut while I relocate her shoulder."

Voss swallowed his pride before reaching for the white vixen's muzzle, "I'm really sorry about this..."

Krystal pulled on the appendage a bit so that the bars would hold Vixy in place, and looked to the white vixen who nodded. Krystal began to pull until she felt the shoulder give popping back into place. Causing Vixy to let out a muffled scream. Which subsided when she pushed away Voss's paw...

"Thank you both..." She said working her shoulder a bit.

"Listen...for what it's worth...I-I'm..."

Vixy held up a paw, "You don't need to do that Voss...I knew your mother and father. I understand why you would think that way you do. Then again I wasn't exactly your mother's best friend."

Just then Fox wandered around the corner, his upper half drenched in blood...the lupine that followed behind him looked incredibly disturbed...

"My god Fox are you alright?"

He looked a bit angry, "Not my blood...he fought back." Fox grumbled wiping some blood from his right eye..

Julius looked absolutely disturbed, "It was terrible...the worst think I've ever seen. H-he-he tore it right off...there was blood everywhere."

Krystal smiled at the horribly disturbed wolf, "I take it you aren't used to seeing death."

"I-i--it was the foulest thing I've ever seen...couldn't find his knife . So he chewed through most of it..."

"Fox that was going a bit far..." Krystal said.

Fox spit out a bit of blood, "He tasted like vodka..." He said shuddering, "...I hate Vodka. Here's the key." He finished tossing her a bloody severed paw.

As Krystal wiped down the paw to place it on the scanner to the cell she noticed Voss smiling, "What are you so happy about?"

Voss smiled at her, "I kind of like him..."

Krystal placed the severed limb on the scanner, "Yeah and why's that?"

"Outsider or no...if he's willing to chew through a man's forearm just because you asked for something...He must really care about you."

Krystal looked over to Fox who was wiping the blood from his face with a rag of cloth that Julius had handed to him, "You know...I never really looked at it that way." As soon as he was out in the open Krystal hugged her brother, "I really missed you Voss...I knew something like the end of the world wouldn't be enough to take you out."

"Well you remember what Arlex used to say..."

Krystal chuckled a bit, "Yeah. You're too damn stubborn to die. Same way with Fox...you could be certain that he's dead and two days later...he proves you wrong."

Fox made his way over to the small crowd of blue furs, "Okay we've got four rifles who here can fight? We can leave Julius here out...he had a hard enough time watching a man loose his hand...watching what these do to an animal wouldn't sit right with him."

Krystal reached for one but Fox pulled it back, "No Krys...I need you to help the others...especially the kits and the older ones."

Voss stepped forward, "I can help..."

"Me too...I've had military training." Vixey stepped forward.

As he was staring down the barrel Fox pulled the rifle out of Voss's hands, "Mom...do me a favor and show him how this works before he blows his fucking face off." Fox said then turning toward Julius, "Yo Jules...you're gonna have to roll with me. We have to go in shifts..."

"How so?" Voss asked.

"Simple you and my mom take the first group up...half of the group...you'll take Krystal she'll show you to the docking bay..." Fox pointed out, "Then Julius and I will take whoever is left so. Split up everyone, kits and older animals with Voss. Other's with me." Fox took a quick head count, "Okay that's 5...7...8 for you and...9 for me. Good but we may need a back up plan..."

Julius brought his muzzle up to Fox's ear for a moment, "You know that might work...we'll go with that just in case." Fox said patting the wolf on the back, "Alright then. Voss...Mom...get your group on the elevator and Krystal make sure you get them to John's ship ASAP..."

"Got it..." Krystal said hugging Fox, "You'd better be careful."

* * *

-**000**-

Fox watched and as the first group boarded the elevator he pulled Voss aside, who seemed to be a bit more than confused about the strange look that he was being given...

"Take care of my mother and Krystal Voss...I don't want to see anyone hurt in this thing unless it's gonna be me..."

Voss smiled, "You have my word..."

"That's all I ask...now get those people out of here."

Voss positioned all of the Cerinians into the elevator in a way that placed himself and Vixey at the front, as the doors closed he went over his group; he got off lucky, strong younger males, and a few females of about the same age. _At least they can all fight..._He thought to himself. He went through the entire group for a moment...

"Okay listen up...ladies stay in the middle, I want three of you men up front with and two in back. We're going to take an alternate route out of here. You all follow behind me and the wolf and don't fall behind. Ladies I know your culture taught you all to be fighters but, right now you four are very important to keeping your people alive so please do not leave your position just let us do the protecting for right now okay...everyone ready then?"

Fox received a nod from everyone, "Good...think you can handle this Jules?"

The wolf took a deep breath, "I've been trying to help them since I got here...if I have to swallow my pride and kill a few animals to keep their race form dying off...Yeah I think I can handle that."

"Good then you stay ahead of the group, "Give us a warning of any guards...we'll want this first part to be as quiet as possible. Hopefully we'll pick up some more weapons along the way."

Julius started off toward the room where the other's had been playing cards, as they passed up the brutal scene of what Fox had done to the three that were there he could hear several gagging sounds from the group of young Cerinians...as well as one from Julius. As they exited the far end of the room Fox realized that they were headed into a rather narrow hall leading to some sort of large lift far off in the distance, Julius called for everyone to stop and headed out toward the lift but, soon stopped. For a moment it looked like he was talking to someone then moved to one side to let an animal pass, the animal fell to the ground however as Julius struck it in the back of the head with his weapon, he then waved to Fox who led the group over to the wolf...the one on the ground was a female squirrel...a rather cute one...

"She was my friend Fox...I couldn't kill her..."

Fox smiled and patted Julius on the shoulder, "You did the right thing Jules. Just move her to one side and lets get the hell out of here."

As soon as the squirrel was laid against a nearby wall the group rushed down the hall and stopped at the large service elevator...

"Alright..." Julius said, "...we're not far from this ship's docking bay. Luckily nobody's set off the--" As if on cue the alarm sounded with a blaring siren as the halls went dark with flashing red lights.

As if completely ignoring the sound and lights Fox and Julius loaded the group onto the lift which was gladly not early as crowded as the one Krystal had taken. Luckily and unfortunately however most of the soldiers aboard the Nemesis would be occupied with the threat that had triggered the alarm...and it hadn't been Fox's group. A ping of worry shot through Fox's senses...he no longer cared about being quiet. Their small group rushed down the halls, and to Fox's horror there were no soldiers...nothing too shoot at all. As they neared the docking bay Julius froze finding several animals blocking the door. Fox however saw the matter differently and rushed by, he didn't have time to think. There were only four of them. As he barreled down the hall a quick gunshot gathered the guards's attention as one of their ranks fell to the floor with a fountaining hole in his visor. Two more jumped into the clearing of the hall only to find that Fox had already gained too much ground. The desperate vulpine dropped sliding into their legs with his own causing the two animals to fall painfully to their faces. The last animal rushed in at him but before he could get off a shot Fox swung his rifle under his arm and fired tearing several small holes in the animal's chest, he then swung the rifle back around and before the other two could get to their feet fired into the back of both of their heads. Julius looked a bit stunned as Fox called him over to the now open docking bay door where he was outfitting himself with whatever guns he could claim from the bodies; a shotgun, another assault rifle, two blasters, and a pistol...

"Seems clear enough from here Jules...can you pilot a ship?" Fox asked.

"Yeah...well a lot better than I can fight." Julius yelled over the sirens.

"Good...get to that small transport and head toward Corneria. There should be a black ship not far from here...send 'em a transmission and tell them that Scar sent you..." Fox said rushing down the halls.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING!?" Julius yelled.

"TO HELP THE OTHERS!!"

As Fox rushed down the halls Julius was left to care for the Cerinians who he led into the Nemesis's massive docking bay. He then led them to a small transport ship...the kind used for small time military drops, and opened the bay doors to it. He checked over the group and noticed one was missing. When he turned back he noticed one of the girls had fallen, what's worse was the large animal that was slowly walking into the docking bay. The black bear was injured but still massive in size. The blue vixen tried to run but found that she couldn't stand, whatever she'd tripped over had clearly sprained or broken something. Julius wasn't a fighter but he knew something had to be done as she was attempting to crawl away form the lumbering animal that approached her. She finally managed to stand up limping her way toward the wolf..but as Julius noticed the weapon that the bear had he rushed in tackling the girl to the ground but rolling onto his back. The slick cloth of his shirt cased them to begin to slide across the floor between the giant's legs where Julius let his rifle loose into the bear's back. As the bear stumbled Julius rolled himself and the girl to one side clearing the spot for the corpse to fall, only to find themselves lost in each other's eyes...

Julius blushed a bit as he chuckled, "Umm..ha...Hi..." He was cut off by a short kiss form the vixen, "Wow...You know a 'thank you' would have been just fine."

* * *

-**000**-

Krystal's small group was pinned down just outside of the Nemesis...she was trying her hardest to stop an old male from bleeding to death from the bullet wound in his gut. Luckily John was there to help Vixy and Voss hold down a suppressing gunfire while the Cerinians were boarded onto John's ship, for a moment it felt like it was a loosing fight, no matter how many they killed it seemed as though they were barraged by that many more. Suddenly without warning several of their ranks dropped with severed arms. Krystal had barely caught what had caused it...a small flying blade which was now in the hands of a familiar looking timber wolf...beside him a white furred female lupine fired off several rounds from a sniper rifle...it was Jared and Shera. Several minutes went bay and to their unfortunate dismay the line of soldiers still didn't end until they could hear panicked gunfire coming form the Nemesis. As Fox got to the entrance of the Nemesis he found that the door was jammed full of soldiers that clearly didn't see him coming as he released a hail of gunfire into the crowd of animals, several panicked and ran while the others seemed to fall around them. Fox worked his way through them slowly picking up one of the dead animal's weapons when his ran dry. Soon enough he was to a point where the others could clearly see him blasting his way through the scores of soldiers, he'd been hit once but it wasn't something that he'd bother with...Soon enough the masses that were left disbanded running in random directions to get away from what appeared to be a loosing fight. Unfortunately as Fox cleared the Nemesis he noticed something...a familiar black clad fox walking lackadaisically toward them with a rather long, curved sword who's point scraped the floor. Fox remembered this freak...it was the same one that had attacked him on Corneria. Angered, Fox fired his rifle at the strange swordsman, but with a blaze of steel the bullets were all reflected by his sword...

"What the fuck?" Fox said throwing the gun to the ground, "Am I a magnet for these god damned freaks?!"

Fox readied himself for a fight but the one he was certain was called Strider stopped. A smug grin washed over his face and without warning he hurled the sword toward Fox which halted in mid-flight over his shoulder. Fox looked over his shoulder to see that a raccoon had been impaled through the face by the weapon who then fell to the ground. Fox quickly ripped the sword from the animal's head and whipped back around to face the dark clad one who simply stood there smiling...

"Strider right?" Fox asked.

"And you are Fox McCloud...I would love to finish this as it is but...I see you are far too obligated to give your life in service to what you are doing. Keep it until next time." Strider said turning his back on the group, "Maybe you'll be a decent challenge by then."

As Fox watched Strider walk away his vision failed a bit...he was so busy that he hadn't even noticed how many times he'd been hit, there was a bullet in his leg, arm and gut. Krystal and Vixy both ran to him when the saw him stumble forward using the sword to keep him from falling. He tried to steady himself while he breathed the fire from his lungs...he'd ran all the way back through the Nemesis to get there...and wasn't even paying attention to know he'd been hit three times. His vision started to blur a bit but, he forced himself to his feet, trying his hardest to ignore the pain that now coursed through his body. To be honest he was happy that Strider had not decided to fight...eventually his blood loss would have gotten to him and Strider would have killed him. Krystal shouldered his weight and helped the injured fox to the ship, they needed to move out before Omni could regroup...

* * *

-**Undisclosed Location**-

Cornelius walks into his office and set's his lab coat on a rack near the door...after a long day he heads to his small private bar to fix himself a drink and while he dose he notices that someone else has already helped themselves to a drink of their own. He sighs as he sits in his chair turnign toward the sunset in his window...

"Hello Syler...I'd say it's nice to see you in good health again but...this isn't a social call is it?"

The blue furred fox stepped out of the shadows like some ominous predator, "You've outlived your usefulness old man. You're starting to get in our way."

Cornelius took a sip of his drink, "You'll never find it Syler...you just haven't got what it takes."

Syler slowly pulls his sword, "Don't worry about that...I have my ways...I'm much smarter than you or your brother gave me credit for..."

"Huh...Andross..." Cornelius recalled, "...you were using him as well?"

"Not at first...It was originally his idea to look for that old myth. He put together the pieces of that puzzle...proved that it was real, but if the Blade of Ages will be held again it will be by Cerinian hand. Where it belongs."

Cornelius chuckled to himself, "And? What would you do with that kind of power?"

"My people were completely destroyed by those that did not understand us...that feared a people that never gave cause for their worry. All because we had power that they did not. I'll make them all suffer for what they've done...all of those witless fools that thought they could fight evolution...and with the blade at my side I'll deliver their own mistake back upon them on a Cataclysmic scale. I will bring their perfect world down...around...their...eyes..."

Cornelius tossed his now empty glass aside, "Others have tried Syler...and like them you'll try and fail...just the same."

"Are those your last words Doctor?"

"No...actually. These are..." Cornelius spun his chair to face the fox, "You're fucking mad."

Moments later Elyna walked through the door to find the old ape's severed head laying on his desk, the body had been tossed aside...

"I'm afraid we're under new management..."

As she heard this voice the president's chair spun to reveal Syler, covered in blood, lighting one of the president's favorite cigars and propping his feet up on the desk..

"I want you to look over the survivors from the incident at the Beta complex..." Syler said, "...I need as many of the doctors on this list as you can find. Now there's nothing that can stop Project Zeta from fruition..."

* * *

**AN: Wow that chapter...it refused to end. Hopefully the next one doesn't hurt by brain so much though. Hope you enjoy it though...I had fur writing it...R&R...and till next time...Cya.**

Ps: Thanks fer all yer support


	30. Chapter XXIX

-**Chapter XXIX**-

-7:38am-

(The Dark Star)

The days went by seemed to last an eternity...Fox was recovering quickly enough, at least he was well enough to be constantly working on his arwing. The Cerinians all found their places to stay...there was even a pair that often slept in this arwing, but he had noticed that it was becoming crowded on the ship. All of the Cerinians, plus Krystal, Roxy, Silver, Creed, Shera and Jared who had for some reason never left, and John and Julius, added up to over 20 animals in a ship meant for what seemed to Fox to be a crew of 4 to 10. As he sat by working on his arwing he took a deep breath, all of the movement was hurting his arm, but this was his stress relief. The longer he sat there the more he felt like his worries were going away...his music helped though to spare everyone else he was simply wearing headphones, probably why he didn't hear the docking bay doors open to allow someone inside. He found it a bit harder to do most of the work that would normally pose no problem with several bullet wounds in him. He could feel a familiar presence as his senses told him that someone was nearby, he pulled the headphones from his ears and lay there for a moment...

"You need something?" He asked.

"Actually I was hoping I could talk with you..." Voss's voice said from out of view.

Fox rolled his small dolly out form under the arwing, "I guess..." He said reaching for the blue vulpine, "Just help me up will ya?" Voss did so, "Thanks, with a hole in your leg it ain't too easy getting up once you're down."

"I talked with Krystal last night while you were still sleeping...she told me all of the things that you've done for her...thank you."

Fox limped toward a small bench where he'd been keeping a few cold drinks in case he got too hot, "Don't mention it..." He replied sitting on the small bench.

Voss walked around a bit, "Why did you help her when she was trapped on Sauria? You were clearly not obligated to do so."

"You know what? I've asked myself that same question...hundreds of times...and honestly I don't know. Something inside just told me that I needed to save her.."

Voss thought to himself for a moment, "You are...Cerinian, yes?"

"Well...half at least." Fox replied.

"And you love my sister?"

"More than you'll ever know." Fox replied.

That was all Voss really needed to hear, "So what will you do with us?" He asked changing the subject, "Your ship has become rather crowded..."

"That's alright I know this little place...Krystal says it reminds her of home. That's where we're headed right now."

* * *

-**000**-

It wasn't long before Fox found himself with nothing to do...again, he swore that being injured put a serious damper on his list of things he could and couldn't do. He simply found himself limping through the halls endlessly, going from one place to another trying to fill the void of boredom. His time alone seemed excruciatingly long...the hours seemed to last forever. It was still early morning, his mother had been sleeping day in and day out like most of the other Cerinian captives, the only people that seemed to be awake were himself, Voss, and Creed. After some time he found himself wandering around the place room by room, soon he found himself on the rarely visited third deck...where the engines were kept he had always love the luminescent blue glow given off by a ship's Plasma Fusion Recoil...in a silly way it reminded him of a certain vixen's eyes. It was as he explored the place that he found a door tucked away in a place he'd not quite thought about looking...He'd always thought that the engine room was simply for the ship's engines. As he opened the small door and walked into the rather large room he realized where he was; it was almost an empty room spare fore the fact that the walls and floors were covered in small reflective panels...

"MIA...is this the ships Holo-deck?"

"Yes captain..."

"Hmm..." Fox hummed to himself, "Didn't think such a small ship had one. Well at least not one this big...but why is it down here?"

"The Holo-deck of this ship houses several small scale escape pods..."

"Hmm...hidden escape pods...That's clever..." Fox looked around a bit then smiled, "MIA do me a favor and render something out for me..."

* * *

-**000**-

Krystal yawned as she stretched her back...she was already regretting giving up her bed to a few of the Cerinians aboard the ship, her bed of choice for the night being a simple couch in the ship's rec room. Her main regret was that it was a simple love seat and didn't quite match her body in length. She was happy enough that she made it to the kitchen before most of her blue furred brethren...even happier more to realize that her room...well Fox's room was empty by the time she decided that she needed a shower. Her thoughts had been reeling since the other day. She had sensed it clearly, that Strider character could have gone through Fox like a wet tissue...what was his game? There was clearly more to him than he let on...either that or he was just too cocky for his own good. Luckily as she disrobed and stepped into the steaming waters of the shower her thoughts melted away along with the aching in her muscles...unfortunately her thoughts wandered toward other subjects like; The old one that had died in her arms at Sargasso Station, the cold hard fact that Fox was a Cerinian, and the colder fact that he was going to leave her again...but if that were true why was he so happy that she had followed him? She didn't want to think that he would simply abandon her again so readily. Once again as her thoughts began to run her down she took occupied her mind with her shower rubbing her fur down with a strange smelling shampoo that she'd recognized the smell of...it smelled like Fox. It must have been his favorite because she really couldn't imagine him having another smell to him. Once she was done with her shower she headed back into the empty bedroom, she slid on a new part of panties in time to hear the door slide open...on instinct she scooped up one of her boots and turned hurling it at the intruder...

"SON OF A BITCH!!" Fox screamed as the boot collided with the side of his face, "You know the easier way to stop that from happening is to lock the door.." He said trying to open his right eye while picking up the footwear projectile.

Krystal retreated to the bathroom to finish getting dressed then walked back into the room taking her boot from Fox who was still having trouble with his eye, "Call me crazy but, you seem a bit high strung..."

"And what would give you that idea?" Krystal asked.

"Call it a hunch..." Fox replied rubbing what would most likely become a black eye.

"Well sorry about that...I know this is your room but..." Krystal said tossing her misplaced boot back where it belonged, "there are a lot more males here than usual...it's hard to tell which is coming and going anymore."

Fox chuckled a bit, "Well I know you're used to having your own room...so why don't you just call this one yours, we'll program the scanner for you later today alright?"

"Thanks Fox...and I'm sorry about your eye." Krystal replied, "Oh did you need something?"

"Actually yes...come on." Fox replied grabbing her paw and leading her out the door.

Krystal laughed a bit at the injured vulpine's pace as he was pulling her along, "Fohahax...where are we going?"

"Someplace special...just close your eyes and follow me."

* * *

-**ooo**-

Krystal didn't know why but she couldn't help but to do what he asked...she really loved surprises, and she'd learned when they were dating that his surprises were usually good ones. As he pulled her blindly along Krystal could feel the floor begin to move downward, wherever they were going it was on the two lower decks. Then as the elevator door opened she could hear the unmistakable sound of a humming Plasma Recoil, she hadn't been to the Dark Star's engine room very often...but still followed Fox as he dragged her a bit further into a room where the humming was no longer audible, but there was another sound, one she'd not heard in some time...birds...

"Now keep your eyes closed okay?" Fox said releasing her paw, "Tell me what do you remember the most about...us?"

"You mean in specific or something?" Krystal replied keeping her eyes shut.

"What day stands out?"

Krystal smiled brightly, "Our fist date...why?"

"Open your eyes..."

Krystal was almost blinded by the sunlight, she found herself staring out onto the Cornerian horizon, the sun could be clearly seen setting over the sea turning the entire landscape a beautiful shade of red that made it seem like the sky was on fire. They were standing on what appeared to be Notting Hill...a fact that was confirmed as she looked off into the distance to see the unmistakable sight of McCloud Manor, the same single large oak tree sat right next to her where she could clearly see two separate carvings in the trunk; the words James and Vixy carved inside a small heart as well as another marked with the names Fox and Krystal. Her eyes actually burned with tears at the sight of the carving...

"You actually remembered all of this?" She asked, forcing back whatever tears she felt.

"How could I ever forget?" Fox replied, "It was one of the happiest days of my life...also one of the most nerve wrecking , but...I wouldn't have traded that day for anything in the universe..."

"It wasn't that special was it?"

"So you did forget..." Fox smiled, "That's okay so did I for a while."

"Forgot what?" Krystal asked as she sat down, she was surprised that she could actually feel the grass on the ground, "Wow realistic..."

"Yeah...I don't know exactly how it works but it's called a Neurological Interface...make you think you're feeling something that isn't really there, Slip could explain it ...after all he helped invent it." Fox said noticing he'd gotten off subject, "Computer run Program F-1..."

Fox took a seat next to Krystal , she was right about the realism of the whole thing even the wind was there. Krystal was amazed at what she saw next...he wasn't kidding when he said that he remembered everything about that day, and it was proved as two familiar forms walked up the hill stopping not far from them to set up a small picnic. It was them, from way back, her hair was much shorter then, less than shoulder length, at the moment the hologram of her was wearing a light red button up blouse the she recalled getting from Katt just for the occasion, which went with the slightly tight blue jeans she was wearing, she recalled the golden earrings the hologram was wearing as well. Fox's mirror image she took a good look at...he looked nothing like himself, the hologram had only a small streak of white fur atop his head whereas now, Fox was developing a head of hair that was held back in a small ponytail, the scar on his face made a huge difference as well...he wore a black button up, short sleeve shirt that night, with a matching pair of jeans. Krystal noticed that as they sat down the two began to talk but no sound came from them...

"Sorry but there is no recording to base audio off of..." Fox said.

Krystal was too mesmerized by the sight of the two love struck vulpine that she didn't even hear Fox...rather the whole scene played back in her head just as it was in front of her...she was beginning to remember the day word for word. After what seemed like forever the hologram of Fox simply sat there staring at the sunset...Krystal smiled as the hologram of her scooted closer too him until she lay her head on his should resulting in Fox's hologram to reach his arm around her shoulders and resting his head on hers. It was at that moment that she recalled what was so special about that night as she watched the two fade away, her tears came back a bit only to have Fox's paw wipe them away...

"Remember now?"

Krystal simply nodded and moved up against his side resting her head on his shoulder which caused the same reaction as it had his hologram...she knew it was an attempt at finally apologizing to her while he had the chance and knew very well now what was supposed to happen...

"I love you Fox..."

The fact that it wasn't just a memory anymore brought the tears to Fox's eyes this time, "I love you too Krystal...and I'm sorry."

Krystal lifted her head and wiped away the tears on Fox's face before laying her head back where it was, "Fox..."

"Hmm?"

"Shut up..." She said taking her time to enjoy the moment...hoping that it would last forever.

Unfortunately that was a short lived wish as Creed's voice seemed to boom through the holographic landscape like the voice of God, "Fox. We just got cleared for hyperspace entry. Our ETA for Sauria is about 3 hours..."

Krystal sighed as she lifted her head from Fox's shoulder, "Good...go ahead..." Fox said.

"Alright then...Creed out."

Krystal lay her head back on Fox's shoulder and Fox went back to his position as the two watched the unending sunset, " MIA turn off the PA system in this room..."

There was an affirming beep and nothing more. Fox and Krystal were both in the only place they wanted to be at that moment...in the memory of their love which would hopefully finally have a second chance...

* * *

**AN: This chapter to say the least was much shorter than most of the recent ones...It's a bit sappy but, I happen to be a bit of a sap at heart...hell I think maybe we all are a bit. Anyhow R&R...hope you enjoy, I know I did writing it. Till next time y'all. C'ya...  
**


	31. Chapter XXX

-**Chapter XXX**-

Fox's eyes fluttered open as he realized that he and Krystal had at some point fallen asleep in each others arms. He didn't move from his current position with his chest against Krystal's back, with his muzzle resting on the side of her neck, making sure to take in what bit of her scent he still could in case this all turned out to be some sort of wonderful dream. He was informed of otherwise as he attempted to move only to have the arm that was draped across her pulled forcing him back into his original position..

"Where do you think you're going...?" She mumbled.

Fox didn't fight it but kissed her cheek before laying back down, "We've been asleep down here for over 2 hours...the others might be worried...and I really have to use the bathroom."

Krystal chuckled a bit, "I may just have to put a bed in here...I like this room."

The two stood up exchanging a quick kiss before heading toward the door, "Terminate program..." Fox said causing the frozen Cornerian scene to wither and vanish into the drab, dull room it was before.

The two vulpine walked to the elevator and rode back up where Fox headed off toward his old room Krystal headed toward the kitchen, she hadn't said so but she was rather hungry. Fox left his old room feeling rather refreshed...and his mind was free of all those old laden thoughts of Krystal, he finally found himself able to think toward the future with a positive state of mind again. Silver seemed to come out of nowhere as Fox headed toward the kitchen himself...Silver just followed behind him not saying a word...it was actually getting kind of creepy. As he finally made it to the kitchen Silver was a bit startled as Fox spun on his heels ...

"What!?" He yelled.

"Nothing...I just needed to talk to you about something."

"What?"

"Roxy set up this date thing with me and her next time we landed somewhere...and I just don't know what to do."

"Wow you're really thinking hard on this aren't you?" Fox thought for a moment, "Well...lets see. Have you kissed her?"

"No..."

"Has she kissed you?"

"A few times."

"Well I'd just say a nice, romantic dinner...that's what Krystal and I used to do all the time."

Silver gave him a questioning look...

"Look just don't worry about it...I know Sauria pretty well I'll help you set something up. A little break from all this drama wouldn't really kill any of us."

Fox finally walked into the kitchen only to find that Krystal was sitting at a table with Roxy and Vixy, he walked carefully by with the intention of not getting himself caught up in some kind of ungodly girl talk, made his way to the fridge, and headed back for the door with his food before he heard his name being called back to the table...He hung his head low with a sigh of desperation...

"Damn..." He put on a convincing smile as he made his way to the table, "What?"

Vixy turned to face him, "Fox dear...could you bring me the staff that Krystal has told me about?"

"Oookay..."

Fox didn't ask any questions, he simply wandered off to his former room where he retrieved the staff and the small cylinder that he'd taken when Silver had killed Danzig. He captured looks from several Cerinians on the way back toward the kitchen though he couldn't piece together why. When he finally got back, he found that Roxy had gone, he took her old seat and set the staff on the table with the small cylinder...

"I can't believe Marcus kept this on Cerinia...I take it he left it with you when the planet was destroyed." Vixy said looking toward Krystal.

"Yes he was my father...he said it was a family heirloom..."

"I'm sorry dear but I wish it were that simple..." Fox's mother said in a low tone.

"So it wasn't an heirloom?"

Vixy sighed...she'd hoped that everything had ended with Cerinia, "I'm sure your mother and father told you about The Blade of Ages..."

"Of course...what Cerinian child hasn't heard that story?"

Fox felt a bit left out, "Might I remind you. I only recently learned that I was Cerinian so...explanation please..."

Vixy giggled a bit at her son's discontent, "I understand Fox. You should understand that I was waiting until you were old enough to handle the fact before Omni stepped in...otherwise I'd have taught you everything about your roots long ago..." She said, "The story was used as a bit of a history lesson at one point but, as the centuries passed on it slipped away and became little more than a story. You see long before any of us were born, the Cerinian race was just as, if not, even more advanced than Corneria our home world was nowhere near Lylat. We were a simple minded race though and had far too many intolerances...war had become common place, and with our technology the weapons grew stronger and stronger...until Balthazar came along...a visionary of that age. It took him half a century to construct it...a weapon fused with the best of both worlds, a perfect blend of magic and technology. The tale says that the weapon was only used once to end a lasting feud against the Virexians...after that sole demonstration of it's power even it's users began to fear it. The weapon left nothing behind of the Virexian home wold, not even dust, it was as if the planet had never even been there. The weapon began to draw many...admirers. People began to lust after something with so much power, wars were waged, there was death, and the Cerinian culture simply began to crumble at the seams. It was Krystal's distant ancestor...a prophet, that gathered together what Cerinians he could before leaving that world with a new home in mind...he had seen the end of that world coming. However before he had left, the elders had gathered one last time, they had over the years learned to trust the prophet on his predictions. Something about his vision caused them to come as close as they could manage toward destroying the weapon. The weapon was dismantled, and since there had been no discovered method for destroying it, the fragments were hidden in various places throughout the stars..."

"Wait...so that thing really dose exists?" Fox asked unbelievingly.

"Yes...and what's worse..." Vixy said reaching for the staff, "I believe that this is one of those fragments...but what is this?" She asked picking up the small cylinder that fit onto the headpiece.

"I don't know but...when you fix it to the end of the staff you get some freaky star map..." Fox replied, "Took forever to open the damn thing too."

Vixy quickly slid the headpiece of the staff into the end of the cylinder, causing the brilliant light show that Fox had seen before...Krystal was mesmerized by the display of lights that shot from the cylinder as it's walls bloomed open like a flower allowing the crystal on the inside to illuminate the room. Fox a moment the lights were so intense that they forced everyone to cover their eyes, but once opened they were sitting at the center of a massive dome of holographic stars and planets. Krystal blinked her eyes in disbelief, with her mouth hanging open in amazement, she'd never seen such a brilliantly detailed star map before. Fox made sure to draw attention to the single glowing red planet marked...

"What is this? I've never heard of anything like this..." Vixy said while examining the map.

"Well maybe our answers are on Fichina..." Fox replied, "There's gotta be some sort of reason why it's the only planet on that map that's marked."

"Are you sure about that Fox? You could be getting in over your head here..." Krystal said.

"I've been in over my head for as long as I can remember..." Fox said, "This could be serious though...cuz if that thing is pointing to what I think it may be...we need to get to it before anyone else...but since we have the only map, we should rest up on Sauria and gather our strength. The last thing we need on that planet is a crew led by a gimp."

* * *

-**000**-

(Sauria)

Before anyone was allowed to get off of the ship, Fox made sure he was in the docking bay near the bay doors and had the other's gather the Cerinians...

"Okay...all Cerinians listen up..." He called out over the small amassed crowd, "We've landed in a small place called Thorntail Hollow...the place is nice and quite and peaceful...but the surrounding areas can get pretty hazardous...so parents make sure the little ones don't wander off. If any of you need something tell Krystal, Creed...that's the big red furred guy to your left, or myself...we all know this area pretty well." He then entered the access code to the docking bay which cased the large door to open into a small gangplank, "Alright then...you'll have to file out three at a time."

Soon enough Krystal and Fox were the only two left behind in the docking bay, Fox seemed a bit lost in thought...until he felt a soft paw grab his wrist. He looked to it's source to see a smiling Krystal...

The look on her face caused Fox to chuckle a bit, "What?"

She smiled a bit wider as she lay her arms on his shoulders, pressing her forehead against his, "You know what? There's something that I forgot about this morning while we were on the Holo-deck..."

"Really wha.--umph--"

At first he was surprised that she'd done it, but as he realized that the kiss was a way of letting him know that she'd forgiven him, the wide eyed expression on his face sunk until his eyes were closed, and his arms seemed to involuntarily pull her closer to him causing her to giggle a bit into his mouth. He wasn't sure whether or not she'd done it on purpose but, after he had added his own enthusiasm to the embrace the kiss began to get a bit heated before she pulled away from him. His heart rate had worked up a bit, and he was a bit short of breath. Neither one of them said anything further...rather with an arm draped over one another's shoulders the made their way out into Sauria's bright open sunlight. It felt like it had been almost forever since the last time either of them had seen the planet where they'd first met. Fox had always loved the sights the planet had to offer, the Cerinians seemed to enjoy the land as well as several of the small ones were already running about playing with one another...

"I think they'll like it here..." Fix said to the vixen on his arm.

Krystal smiled at the young ones, "I think you're right...this was a good call...they can start over here."

Suddenly Fox remembered his promise, "Say you wanna help me with something?"

"Like what...?" Krystal asked in flirtatious tone.

"I sort of promised Silver that I'd help him with this date he's got with Roxy..."

"That bad huh?" Krystal chuckled.

"Yeah...It must be hell. Having no clue what emotions you're feeling at any given time."

Krystal didn't like the thought of going though that, "So what did you have in mind for him?"

Krystal helped Fox put some things together before they walked out into the Hollow...they were happy enough to find most of the Cerinians had settled down in the area. Some were swimming in the slightly deep river that split the Hollow into two halves as it was a hot day. Fox already knew where to set everything up...on the small cliff near the Hollow's well that housed one of the beckon fires...

"Why right here?" Krystal asked as Fox lay down a small picnic blanket.

"Why not? Romantic candlelight..." Fox said turning toward the fire, "...nice view. Same place I would have brought you." He finished with a smile.

After they finished setting everything up Fox walked toward the edge of the small cliff looking to the large gathering basin of water below and pulled off his shirt and boots. Krystal hadn't even noticed as she was admiring the view from their particularly nice vantage point. Until she heard something hit the water drawing her attention to where Fox was once standing, now there was nothing there but a discarded shirt and a pair of boots. She smiled as she looked over the edge as Fox's head emerged from the water, shaking the water form his fur, before looking up at her playfully...

"What? I don't get a whole lot of time to relax like this..." He called up to her.

The cerulean furred vixen rolled her eyes and walked out of sight and Fox went back to his swim, until a few seconds later he could see a blue ball of fur flying into the air with her knees held to her chest, she landed just about a foot from his left her impact with the water sending a large splash of water into the air. As she emerged from the surface of the water she noticed that Fox wasn't even there anymore, she realized what was going on as she felt something playfully tug on the end of her tail causing a short, playful shriek to jump from her throat. When she finally heard him surface again Krystal turned toward the fox's devilish grin only to have a short blast of water hit her face. After a short while of splashing and playfully dunking each other in the water, Fox began to retreat back up the bank only to have his tail caught and his body pulled back into the frigid waters. The two continued with their childish game of tag for some time, laughing like they were kits again...but, somewhere along the line their game had turned from tag to some form of water wrestling...which inevitably lead to the two being connected at the muzzle...

Vixy had been watching the two from the distance, "..._sigh..._To be young and in love again."

After some time Fox broke their embrace breathing a bit heavily, "I...think we should head in soon...starting to get a bit dark. Gotta make sure the Sharpclaw don't get gutsy and decided to come this far."

Krystal kissed him again, "Aw...and I was just starting to relax a little..."

"Oh come on...we can relax later. We need to piece together what we're going to do about Omni anyway."

The weren't surprised to find that the Cerinians had made a small camp outside the large ship, it was the way they were used to life, not confined to some metal structure but, rather closer to nature. At the moment they were all gathered around a small fire while Creed seemed to be passing out blankets...he didn't even seem to notice Fox and Krystal as they made their way to the small clearing around the Dark Star. They helped him in making sure every one of the blue furred foxes had their own blanket. Fox returned to the ship as Krystal sat near the fire with Creed to keep a watch on the area for any suspicious activity. As the two friends sat there Creed fueled the fire with a nearby log...

"So...you two seem to be doing better..." He said.

"Shut up Creed..." Krystal half giggled.

"I'm serious...when we first me you were always so angry...it's good to see you happy for once. Honestly...I prefer Krystal over Kursed any day of the week."

Krystal looked back onto their friendship, she hadn't been the nicest person to him...but Creed stuck with her, "Creed...I'm sorry. Ever since we've known each other I've been a real bitch. All you've ever done is tried to be a friend to me...and most of the time I just pushed you away. Why didn't you just give up like everyone else?"

Creed sighed and shook his head, "Krystal...it's the ones that try the hardest to push you away that truly need you. When we first me the only thing you ever seemed to think about was killing your bounty and getting paid. Then you came after me, and for some reason even when the chance presented itself...you didn't kill me..."

"Well to be fair you did save my life first..."

"True..." Creed chuckled, "...but then we worked that first job as a team. You tried so hard to keep yourself locked away, but, that wasn't what I saw at all...you missed having someone else around that you could trust...of all the people I'd ever met, you were the one person that I knew just by the sight of their eyes needed a friend, someone that cared...and even though you started out hating the idea, you eventually let it go. Most of the time you were still an angry, bitch...but you were an angry bitch that I was happy to call my friend..."

"I don't think I can ever thank you enough Creed..." Krystal said, "After Fox left me...I knew he'd done it for my own good but, that small part of me just wouldn't let it go. The more time that went by the more that small part of me took over, until it was all that was left. By that time I'd convinced myself that there was no love, no family, no friendship...that it was all nothing but lies. I withdrew myself from everyone that had ever seemed to care about me...even hurt them like I did Fox when I joined Star Wolf, I'd become everything that I'd ever truly hated...and because of that began to hate myself as well. As the years progressed...I attempted to fill the void of hate with money...it didn't work. Then despite the fact that I'd already shot you twice...you still saved me from that creep with the rifle...on that day you gave me back a tiny bit of what I'd lost, I suppose that's why I kept you around...I really missed having someone to trust, it made me feel like me again. And if it weren't for you I would probably have just sat back and completely lost myself...where I am now is all thanks to you...you're my best friend Creed..." She finished chuckling a bit, "...even if you are a bit creepy when you're angry, and you always have terrible breath, and you..."

"Okay Okay Okay...I get the point." Creed said cutting her off, "And thank you too...you've always been a good friend...even when you were a cold, unrelenting, vindictive bitch."

Krystal's ears lay back on her head, "Gee...Thanks..."

Creed laughed at her irritated look, "You know what I meant."

At that moment Fox seemed to appear out of nowhere with a few more blankets which he sat on he ground before sitting on a large stone someone had used for a seat sitting next to the fire. He didn't seem to pay mind to anything at all, rather he seemed to be lost in his own world. As Creed left to search over the area Krystal noticed that Fox's attention was focused to the spot they'd set up for Silver, where two familiar looking figures sat now...

"Poor kid must be confused as hell...I know I was on our first date."

"Hey I didn't fare much better..."

"Yeah but you didn't throw up."

Krystal laughed a bit, "True but,back then I wasn't sure what a date was in the first place so..."

"You know your brother wants to come with us to Fichina...I don't think he really trusts me to protect you." Fox sighed.

Krystal laughed a bit to herself, "Give him a little time...he'll come around."

"I don't know...I think he's still a little obsessed with that Cerinians only marrying Cerinians thing..."

"Most likely...he may put up a front for my sake but...if that's what he believes it isn't going to change without a lot of convincing."

It wasn't too long before Creed returned and took his place he seemed to be a bit lost, "I—I'm leaving tonight..."

"What!?" Fox nearly yelled, "Why...?"

"It's personal...something that I have to do for myself. In Dan'jas near a planet called Ritra..."

"But that planet is uncharted...what could you possibly find anywhere near it?" Krystal asked.

Creed sighed, "An old friend...we have some issues that need to be sorted out."

"Alright then Creed...just be careful, and when you're done with your business meet us on Fichina alright?"

"will do..." Creed said walking off toward the Dark Star.

A short while later Krystal and Fox watched the vulpine's wolfen burst out of the planet's orbit, "I hope he'll be alright..." Krystal said sitting next to Fox.

It was as Fox stretched his arm over Krystal's shoulders that he picked something up near the fire, a small note of paper which he quickly opened, and read out loud...

"Creed...It's time you payed for what you did to me. I'll be near Ritra in Dan'jas for the next few days...Maria..."

* * *

**AN: Alright not much on action or such on this chapter...but I needed to elaborate a bit more on the plot...the next chapter is mostly going to get back into that action though...So R&R and till next time...C'ya...  
**


	32. Chapter XXXI

-**Chapter XXXI**-

(Two days later Ritra outer aerospace)

The small green planet became larger by the minute, Creed still couldn't believe that Maria was still alive...though he didn't find it so hard to believe that she was still so dead set on ending his life. His thoughts hadn't left the subject since he'd received that note...he'd never used the ship's mail system so, he found it hard to believe that he'd received something after all his time on the ship. He activated his ship's cloaking and cut the engines so that it would be incredibly hard to pick up on any scanners...and waited, he wasn't sure what he was even doing there, as he thought it over he realized that he couldn't simply kill her, but, he also wasn't about to die out here in the middle of space while Fox and the others headed off into god only knows what kind of trouble. As he waited he reached into a small compartment below his seat pulling out a small energy bar, he began to examine the space around his small fighter...emptiness. Other than the small planet that hovered in the distance and the endless sea of stars that flooded in around the small ship. He yawned a bit as he finished his small snack and sent a small message to the Dark Star telling everyone that he'd be back ASAP. He then went over his drive systems...

"Lets see..." He said to himself, "...weapons 100percent...engines power 77.50percent...G-diffuser 22.36 G-force output..."

As he sat there the console in front of him began to light up with an incoming message. He exhaled a deep breath just before turning on his ship's transmission system. The small screen that appeared on his H.U.D was housed by a glowering vixen with fur a brighter red than even his, her light hazel eyes seemed to be trying to burn a hole right through him, her fiery red hair was much shorter than he recalled, and there was a strange crescent shaped scar that hooked from her right eyebrow and down the side of her face ending under her chin...

"Maria..." Creed greeted her with a nod.

"Creed..." She half growled back to him.

"So you bring me all this way out here to kill me?"

"If you already knew that why'd you come?"

Creed sighed, "A few reasons...mainly to know whether or not you really were still alive..."

"Well I am...no thanks to you...I'm more metal then flesh anymore."

"Thanks to me huh? As I recall you were the one about to pull the trigger...I simply beat you to the fucking punch."

Her expression became an angered snarl, "YOU WERE THE ONE THAT LEFT ME BEHIND!!"

"That was no reason to go after my life...If at any point you ever truly loved me...the thought never would have crossed your mind. You never did love me did you?"

"SHUT UP!! THIS IS YOUR GOD DAMN FAULT!! DON'T YOU DARE TRY TO TURN THIS BACK ON ME!!" She screamed.

Creed's voice never faltered or changed the slightest in pitch, "I guess I always knew...at least a little, I'd just hoped that eventually you'd start to feel the same way I felt about you but...I guess that just wasn't going to happen was it? That's why you blame all of this on me...because you just can't bare the fact that it's your fault you feel the way you do..."

"I SAID SHUT UP!!"

As she screamed at him in protest of his words a plasma bolt from the distant arwing's weapons tore by his wolfen. He kicked the engines back on and shot toward the attacker at full speed. The silent blasts of purple energy hailed onto him causing him to maneuver his ship through them like some sort of death slalom. Several ricocheted off of his ship's shields causing him to be flooded by the small ship's alarms. Now that he was in range he let loose with his own weapons, red lasers posing a slightly more problematic threat as they were capable of slicing through a ship's hull like a plasma cutter. As he approached the small ship his weapons tore away the arwing's right wing...causing the wing to float off toward the gravitational pull of the nearby planet. As he flew by the small ship passing below his weapons tore into the hull splitting the small fighter in two which caused an eerily silent explosion that rocked the large vulpine's wolfen, something wasn't right however...she hadn't moved form that spot, but he remembered her being a much better pilot than that. His thoughts were brought to fact as several shots from an unseen enemy rattled his ship from behind causing him to strike his head on the small fighter's console opening a cut over his eye. The first fighter had been automated to distract his attention. She had always been a better pilot than him...a better strategist too. As he shakily recovered from his collision with the command console he turned his wolfen shooting toward the planet's atmosphere. If he was going to beat her he had to get her grounded. As his ship broke into Ritra's atmosphere he adjusted his ship's G-diffuser system to compensate for the change in gravity. He was happy enough to find that the place was mostly forested areas, but with the vixen on his ass firing wildly hoping to take him out of the sky. As he weaved in and out of the forested areas coming dangerously close to some of the trees, Maria's weapons began to tear into the wooden shields around him. In a last ditch effort to get away from the raging vixen, Creed shot upward barrel rolling through the forest canopy finishing by flipping over into a nearby canyon he'd seen while running...

Unfortunately a massive explosion rocked his ship violently, causing the walls of the canyon to begin to collapse around him. He growled in frustration as he was forced to kick on his ship's thrusters. As he quickly tore back into the open landscapes of the planet, the landscape changed form the rather beautiful forest to an arid desert land covered in arches of rock and stone, and large stone pillars. As his wolfen broke across the desert the missed plasma shots from the arwing behind him sent large clouds of sand into the air around his ship dampening his overall vision. It was as this happened that he noticed a strange rock formation that looked like a forest of the large stone pillars. Taking it as a last hope of loosing her long enough to land he dove into the forest of rock. At this point his shields had been completely used up. As he weaved between the massive stone towers something hit his wing. Causing him to graze one of the pillars tearing his left wing off...

"FUCK!!" He screamed fighting for control over the now heavily unstable fighter.

At some point he was forced to use both hands on a single control stick to level out his wolfen. As he broke clear of the stone forest he tried his hardest to slow down before the ship barreled into the hot dessert sand. Unfortunately his wolfen was hit one last time casing it to barrel out of control. He barely managed to activate the ship's safety control before the small ship slammed into a small rock face, causing his small ship to slam into the sand skipping a few few times and finally sliding to a grinding halt. A few minutes passed before the vixen landed a short ways away, she approached the mangled ship with her blaster drawn. It was as she reached the cockpit laying sideways in the dirt that she cursed out loud...

"FUUUUUUCK!!" She screamed kicking the side of what was left of Creed's ship causing the entire hull to roll over.

The ships emergency crash systems had been activated cushioning the pilot in a cocoon of highly impact resistant, insulated white foam. A pair of footsteps led off toward the open desert. She yelled again in frustration as she realized he'd gotten away and rushed back toward her arwing...he was trapped now anyway...his ship was ruined and he had nowhere to go. After the ship was gone the mangled hull's cargo bay was forced open from the inside and a bloodied Creed fell from the opening landing limply in the hot sand. He managed to pull himself to his feet after a few moments, with a metal paw on his head as he looked to the wreckage, there was no doubt that the thing would never fly again...

"My ship..." He muttered in disbelief as his eye involuntarily closed from the blood that flushed into it, "...DAMN!!" His scream echoed through the vast desert.

Despite the fact that he had no idea where he was going to go, Creed knew that he had no choice but to head toward that forest they'd flown through before Maria realized that she wasn't going to find him in the desert. He could only tell that he had a concussion, his right leg seemed to give him more grief than he cared for. The heat of the day here had only just started which was already sweltering as it was. As he trudged through the horribly hot land, Creed could feel his energy leaving him, his ship's remains were no longer visible in the distance, but his steps were losing what pep they had. He was breathing heavily, the sweat soaked through his clothes and drained into his eyes, he was running the risk of severe dehydration. He'd noticed that he was beginning to hallucinate...that was never a good sign. How long had he been walking? He lost track of the time after he realized that he'd been walking for a bit over a half hour. He knew it was another mirage when he saw the border of the forest on the horizon...but, after reaching the boarder he stumbled forward catching his balance on one of the trees. Unfortunately his body had had enough and as his vision failed he collapsed to his knees still held up by the tree...

* * *

**-some time later-**

He woke with a start, and rolled over throwing up over the side of whatever bed he was in...where was he? He reached to his aching head...there was no cold metal to his touch. Creed looked at his paws only to realize that he was clearly dreaming when his vision came back to him...not only was he in some sort of bed in the middle of a room, but...paws, his paws were...furry, and they had skin. They were is arms, his fur. He balled his right paw into a fist several times and smiled as he realized he was most definitely not dreaming. He depressed the flesh of one of his new arms...the metal was still beneath. As he got to his shoulder he noticed what appeared like a scar with several lines branching toward his collar bone. The fur on them felt real and matched his own fur's color. He attempted to get up but found that as soon as he attempted to stand that his knees gave, making him collapse to the floor. At first he didn't see the one that rushed into the room, he could only feel a warm set of paws as they helped him back into the bed...

"Yam rojb. Moo gvooyr boh pe kayxibt."

He looked back at the whoever had tried to communicate with him; what he found appeared to be a very dark furred she wolf, her fur was such a dark color of black that it made her incredibly light blue eyes stand out that much more. She was dressed in light green colors, and was fairly well built as females went...but what the hell was she saying? And how did he get there in the first place...

"What?" He asked, "I haven't got a clue about what you just said..."

She chuckled a bit, "I said...lay down. You should not be walking." She said clearly this time while moving a bit of her long hair from her face.

"Where--where the hell am I? And what happened to my arms?"

"You are in my house...I found you near the forest boarder. I saw your ship fly overhead...when you came through the forest. And your arms were repaired by my uncle Zann. We were both impressed we've never seen anyone with mechanical arms before. Oh and my name is Angel..."

"Well..." Creed said forcing himself to sit up, "Name's Creed...and thank you. I thought I was as good as dead out there...I owe you one."

"One what?" Angel asked clearly proving that she wasn't familiar with the term.

"I'll find a way to repay you...we'll just leave it at that..." Creed said looking around, "How long have I been here?"

Angel thought for a moment, "Almost two days...some strange vixen was roaming the woods earlier while I was out hunting. Do you know her?"

"Yeah...she's the one that shot me out of the sky..." Creed sighed, "Guess I'm stuck here though. My ship's a wreck..."

Angel laughed, "I know Uncle has been trying to repair it since the others brought it in."

"Really..." Creed said with a bit of hope in his voice, "You think he can repair it?"

"Hmm...It is possible, I've seen him fix worse...you aren't the first person to crash something like that here."

"Don't you have ships here?" Creed asked.

Angel shook her head, "No...we like our solitude...that's the way we've always been." She said heading for the door she'd come in through, "You should get some more rest and let your body recover...I'll bring you something to eat. Uncle may need your help later. I suppose I'll be translator like last time..."

Creed found it impossible to actually stay on his feet as he tried to walk several other times only to have to crawl back into the bed...it seemed he had done some sort of damage or other to his leg, he couldn't find anything wrong with it himself; it didn't really hurt that much so it clearly wasn't broken, no torn muscles...in his opinion that actually hurt more than a break, maybe it was just the aftermath of being so severely overheated while he was walking though the desert...or maybe he'd hit his head harder than he thought. That was when he noticed a small purple welt under the fur on his right thigh, it looked like he'd been bitten or stung by some sort of insect...a rather poisonous one. As he rested his weary head he found that sleep was something his body seemed to crave, as it slowly took over his body. When he finally woke again he found that it was at the aid of the black Lupine he'd spoke with before who now had with her a healthy tray of food, as well as steaming cup...

She sat down the tray and handed him the cup first, "Drink this...I can not guarantee that you'll enjoy it...but it will help."

Upon sipping from the strange green colored tea in the cup he spit it over the side of the bed, "Holy shit! What the hell is that?" He asked spitting a few more times.

"Boiled Gashen roots...it's to counteract the venom." Angel said pulling away the blanket that covered his leg to inspect the swell, "Wrath Vipers...the reason nobody goes into that section of the desert."

"Neural toxin..." Creed said after forcing himself to drink what had to be the foulest think he'd ever tasted, "...that's why I'm nearly paralyzed isn't it?"

The dark furred wolf used her claw to open the top of the small knot, a foul looking purple colored liquid drained from the cut, "You are quite lucky that I found you when I did...Any longer in that sun with this bite and you would have clearly died."

Creed didn't want to dwell on things that she'd asked him not to mention, "Say why is it you can speak Common...it's obviously not your native language."

The midnight furred wolf giggled a bit to herself, "You are right...it's not. You see about ten years ago, another stranger like yourself crashed here. His ship landed right in the middle of our village. He was different from you though...he had long ears and a really short fluffy tail, and almost no muzzle..."

"A hare..."

"Oh...Is that what you call them?" She seemed to ask herself, "He didn't speak our language...and as a curious young cub...I took it onto myself to learn what it was he was constantly trying to say to us. Eventually he taught me your language...not to any small grade of difficulty though. He never got to leave though...His wounds eventually took his life." After he finished eating she gathered the tray and cup, "Well you should get some more sleep..."

"How long am I going to be like this?" Creed asked.

"It's not a severe bite. You should be able to walk by morning."

Though it was with no lesser peace of mind, Creed eventually found himself asleep again...wrapped in the memories of his past, in the nightmares that would no doubt still be seeking him out when he woke. His mind was overflowing with the thought of what he'd do about Maria. Somewhere on some level he still loved her, he could never bring himself to willingly harm her...and worse yet he feared that she was well aware of it. If given no ultimatum would he truly be able...or willing to end her life to keep his own? His thoughts eventually roused him from his sleep. The dull sunlight that shone into the room was enough to inform him that it was dawn. He tested out his legs to the great satisfaction of them working despite them being rather weak. He looked around to find that this small house was rustic but in comparison to any of the homes that one would find on a more civilized planet...but whereas most things would have been made of metal, this small domicile seemed to be mostly constructed of wood. When he left the room he found that the living room...or whatever they called it...was rather nice, with finely crafted furniture made of wood, a large sofa-like piece was covered by hand crafted pillows as well as the dark furred wolf that had nursed him back to health. As he stood there he realized what was bound to happen. With him there Maria would come...and he didn't want any of these people caught up in his problems. They'd given him his arms back...they were just basically covers over his neural links but still, and Angel in particular had kept him alive, he owed her more than anyone. Still with a heavy step as his legs still felt like lead to him, Creed made his way out of the small house and headed off into the woods hoping that Maria would pass this peaceful little village up on her search for him...

* * *

**-Meanwhile...-**

(Sauria, outer aerospace)

Fox didn't like the idea of leaving without Creed...he'd purposely held off their departure in the hopes that he would soon return but, as the days passed the impatient vulpine could no longer take the waiting. He was however glad that the Cerinians seemed to adapt to the Saurian environment rather quickly. He was also a bit happy that his team had dulled down a bit; at the time there was only himself, Krystal, Lia, Silver, Roxy, Voss, and his mother. Julius had decided to stay with the Cerinians, who were quick in welcoming him, and John had left for Kew to meet with some other friends of his. That night as he lay down on his fully reclined captain's seat he closed his eyes...

"MIA...clear us for hyperspace and get us to Fichina."

"Yes captain..."

He was asleep before he even felt the slight jerk as the ship's reflux module dulled the leap to hyperspace into nothing more than slight turbulance. He would see Fichina when he woke in the morning...ready to find whatever it was that was so important there...

* * *

**AN: Well...Chapter 31...this is undoubtably the longest fic I've ever done...and I have no intentions of stopping anytime soon...LOL...**

**Thanks to all of you readers...R&R and I'll C'ya next time... **


	33. Chapter XXXII

**-Chapter XXXII-**

(Ritra's surface)

The strangely beautiful alien forest was full of new sounds and smells that Creed had never before experienced, he felt as though the entire forest was watching him. There was no way of telling what sort of creatures called this forest home but, he'd rather face them than to drag innocents into his own struggles. He didn't like this place on any sort of level but, he couldn't help but realize the sheer beauty of the whole place altogether; he had never seen so much greenery in one place before, all the planets in Lylat were so modern and technological that it seemed everyone had completely forgotten who or what Mother Nature really was...what he was seeing right now. As he walked through the thick forest randomly stopping where what small bit of sunlight pierced the canopy's everlasting twilight...he spent so much time walking through the massive expanse of forest that he almost didn't even notice his own hunger. In the perpetual midnight on the forest floor, it was impossible to tell how long he'd been traveling but, his stomach told him it had been a while.

Ignoring the sounds his stomach made Creed continued to put distance between himself and the ones that had helped him, he wasn't sure just how far Maria was willing to go...but he was certain that through them would be only a trivial step for her at the time. His new friends had deserved more of a warning that he'd left...but he had more than himself to worry about. His tired feet begged him to stop for some sort of reprieve but he kept walking until he could no longer. His body was still weak from his recovery, the poison that Angel had helped ween out of his system had done a number on his strength and his stamina. When he finally decided to rest he did so in the only safe place he could possibly think of...in the trees. It was as he attempted to sleep that he heard the most disturbing on the forest's sounds. Something would wail out into the darkness, a scream full of pain and suffering, it was the sound of death something was dying, slowly...most likely being eaten. He made several more attempts at sleep but, as he lay there nestled in the branches of forest that he noticed something...something he'd hoped he was only imagining. He kept his eyes closed and his arms behind his head while he leaned against the tree...

"...sigh...I would think someone so quiet would know better than to get so close..."

"You have strong senses...most people never see me coming." Angel's voice came from the tree above him.

"Why'd you follow me?" Creed asked.

"You are still weak...and you have no food." She replied from her hidden place.

Her black fur made her completely invisible in the darkness spare for her incredibly light eyes, "Why did you leave so suddenly?" She asked.

"You have no idea what I'm dealing with..." Creed replied, "I don't think she'd hesitate for one second to go through your entire village to get to me...and kill whoever got in her way. You helped me...I just didn't want any of you to have to pay for it,"

As she came down to his level he noticed that she carried a weapon older than any he'd ever seen; it was a wooden bow..something he had little to no knowledge of. She had mentioned that she was a hunter but, she didn't seem like a fighter to him.

"Where were you going to go?"

Creed shrugged his shoulders, "I suppose nowhere...Just roam around until my friends come for me, once they get close enough I can contact them." He said looking to his communicator that still displayed the words no signal.

"You don't strike me as the kind of person to sit and do nothing...

Creed sighed, "What other option do I have?"

"You will always have options Creed...the real question is how far you're willing to go for what you believe in." Angel stated, "I haven't got many beliefs myself, but the ones that I truly hold dear I am will to die fore if given no other recourse."

Creed chuckled to himself, "You're a wise animal...it takes a lot of strength to stand up for your beliefs...the problem is I'm not sure what I believe in anymore."

"That's too bad..." Angel replied, "My grandfather always told me that it is our actions that shape who we are...and our beliefs that strengthen that shape. So without belief in something, your life is just a rough shape, not really given much of a real form...at least not until you decide to shape it for yourself."

Creed thought to himself for a moment, "I'll keep that in mind...thanks."

"Hey..." Angel replied tossing him a small sort of fruit, "No problem."

* * *

-**Fichina Outer Aerospace**-

Fox had grown tired of waiting...he admitted that he didn't like the idea of going on ahead without one of his crew members, but there wasn't much else that he could do to help the situation. He was alone on the bridge when he looked over to the blue vixen sitting at one of the room's command consoles...

"Get ready Krystal...we're gonna have to head out without Creed."

Krystal sighed, "I understand...but I still don't like this. He should have been back by now."

"I don't like it either Krystal but, we've already waited too long as it is..." Fox said, "If you're that worried about him though...we'll see what we can find down on Fichina. If we aren't done by sunset we'll leave and look for Creed. Okay?" He reassured her with a faint smile.

"Alright...thank you Fox." Krystal replied, "It's not like him to stay gone like this."

Fox stood and made his way to the door of the bridge with Krystal at his side, "Besides...he's a tough guy he can more than handle himself. I'm sure he's reconciling things with that Maria person right now..."

* * *

-**Ritra surface**-

Creed nearly hit the forest floor as another bolt of blue energy flew by narrowly missing the side of his head, Angel seemed to hardly believe what was happening, she had only been with Creed traveling for any more than a few hours and now he was dragging her through the forest by the wrist, while dodging what appeared to be flying balls of blue light. Creed was to Angel's great surprise moving very fast, but, with the adrenalin of the whole thing pumping through his veins at the moment he was surprised with his speed himself. It was now that he regretted allowing Angel to come with him, his first notion back then was to make her leave but, he figured that she would have followed anyhow...and for the most part he was right. He barreled through the forest sometimes nearly tripping over downed tree branches and such as it was as usual dark as midnight in the forest. At some point he however began to ignore the debris that was barring his path and instead either leaped over it or simply smashed it out of his path and hopefully into Maria's...several times he could hear the she wolf curse profanely loud in the distance as something most likely hit her. As Creed rushed through the forest Angel noticed that one of the small bolts of energy had grazed his neck which was bleeding...though not enough to cause worry, but the fact was that her shots were getting closer and closer...

"Creed we cannot keep this up..." Angel said as he stopped to gage their position.

"I know...but trust me I know what I'm doing..." Creed replied, "I hope..."

They ran for a bit longer and had outrun Maria by some length, "This place'll have to do..." Creed said catching his breath.

"Do for what?" Angel asked noticing that they were standing in what appeared to be an open glade where the light was shining into the forest through the missing trees above.

"Just back off and find some place to hide...if she has the same Neural Links I do this could get a little rough."

"What are you talking about?" Angle demanded.

"If she wants a fight I'm just gonna have to give her one..."

"But you're still injured. She could kill you."

Creed sighed, "Yeah...she's tough as nails but, you'll just have to trust me on this. Now go hide before she catches up with us."

This time there was a sting to his tone, he was serious and Angel rushed off into the forest at the edge of the small clearing. Creed was looking for just such a spot, he couldn't fight effectively with so many trees and such in his way. He sat on what was left of an old tree stump hoping to catch his breath from the run before she could manage to catch up to him. He hated the idea of hurting her but, it seemed that the Maria he once knew was no longer there...it wasn't long before the dark furred wolf entered the area. When she entered the area her weapon went right to her shoulder aimed at Creed who refused to move from his spot. He noticed that she'd hardly broken a sweat...and wasn't even breathing hard...

"So you have Neural Links for legs and arms..."

Maria's only reply was a deep scowl...

"You don't have to do this Maria. You don't want to do this...so why are you?"

"You know why! All of this...these metal limbs, this is all because of you!"

Creed sighed, "I suppose we all need someone to blame our faults on. The problem is that I already blame my own faults on myself...so taking someone else's in stride just isn't going to happen...even for someone I loved..."

There was a look of pain in the she wolf's eyes from behind the sights of her weapon, "I can't say that I don't still love you Maria...but, I won't sit idly by and allow you to take my life for something that is no fault of my own..."

Maria's expression grew more furious the more he spoke, until there were trails left in her facial fur from her tears. She quickly jolted firing the weapon but, with an almost precognitive motion Creed fell forward allowing the bolt of energy to fly past him. As he landed he rolled forward in the same quick movement catching the barrel of the weapon in his machine driven grip, the hydraulic mechanisms contorting the weapon's barrel into an unusable form. Within the same instant Maria clutched Creed's arm hurling him across the area where he landed with a rather painful impact with the ground...it had hurt but not nearly as much as it could have. She was on him again in a matter of seconds. Creed barely managed to dodge the punch that tore away half of a nearby tree's trunk, there was a loud groan from the remains as the tree began to shake before finally falling to the ground, causing the entire area to shake violently. He recovered but...not so soon that another attack was thrown, a large boulder was hurled at his face, one which fragmented into a mass of small stones from one of his own destructive punches. They were both in a bad position...a single punch or grip from either was more than enough to end the other's life. There was a brief exchange in punches and thrown objects but soon the fight panned out to simply the two throwing punch after blocked punch at one another, Creed saw several openings but, he could not bring himself to do it. Finally after blocking punch after punch Creed slapped away her mitts and quickly drew back his fist causing Maria to cringe as she knew he'd won...but the blow never came. As she opened her eyes again she noticed that Creed seemed to be frozen in place his fist ready to end everything...she however was not so fast to hesitate and drove her right fist into his ribs sending him several feet away, where he rolled to a stop. He spat up blood, and screamed in pain from the ribs that were no doubt clearly broken. Still not giving any leeway Maria slowly walked to the fallen vulpine and knelt down taking him by his collar. She wanted to look into his eyes before ending it all...

As she rose her fist for one last killing blow her eyes went wide as a small spurt of blood hit Creed in the face. He looked up to see the small, rigid point of a stone arrowhead protruding from the center of the she wolf's chest. She looked at the arrow, then finally to Creed before falling to the dirt. Despite the broken ribs Creed managed to crawl over to her...he half expected her to try killing him again but he was wrong...

"I—I though...you said...you wouldn't let that happen." She said struggling to breath, "You could have...have ended...it..."

"You know I could never bring myself to hit you..." He replied with a tear in his eyes.

Maria managed a weak smile, "Sa--same old...Creed."

There was a moment of silence as Angel approached them...

"Why did you have to do this Maria?"

Her metal paw wiped his tears away, "Do—don't waste...your tears on me, Creed...I've been dead for a long time."

"But I still love you..."

Her breathing was very erratic and but she smiled nonetheless, "Th—then do...me...one last favor?" She asked with tears in her eyes, "Kiss me...the way you used to..."

Creed hoisted her back onto his lap and lifted her head meeting her muzzle to his own, interlocking the fingers of their free paw. It wasn't passionate in any sense, but, full of the love that they had once felt for one another...pure comfort...the only thing that Maria needed right now. Creed could taste the blood that pooled to her mouth from the internal damage. Angel didn't say a word, even long after they both knew she was dead. Creed released his hold on her lips, but still held her stroking her hair...he never imagined it would be so hard to say good bye. Even if she was trying to kill him, for that last moment of her life she was the woman he loved again. As he held Maria's lifeless body he could feel rain drops that were beginning to fall at a rather rapid pace, Angel seemed to be a bit paranoid...

"Creed we have to go..." She said laying a paw on his shoulder, "The rains bring out terrible creatures in the forest."

With a yell of pain from his ribs Creed lifted Maria's body and began walking toward the village, "Creed you're injured just leave her."

"NO! I'm not going to leave her body here for some fucking animals..." Creed protested, "She was trying to kill me...but I still love her."

The trek back was full of pain for Creed, the only woman he'd ever loved was dead in his arms, and his ribs protested against his every movement. He'd come here seeking closure, hoping that somehow he could talk her back into the person she once was but, it was all for naught. Her blood was on his paws now, he knew he couldn't blame himself, but he couldn't blame Angel either...she was only trying to help. The two made their way back to the village where Angel showed Creed to a place where he could bury Maria after the rains stopped. Creed seemed irreparably depressed, he didn't say a word for the rest of the day. He didn't even go back inside to have his ribs taken care of, he stayed out and finished laying Maria to rest, covering the top of the grave with large rocks, using his metal claws to carve her name in the largest one set at the head of the grave. When Angel woke the next morning she found that there was a small piece of paper on the table which she quickly snatched up...

_Angel,_

_Sorry for not waiting until you woke up but, I couldn't stick around any longer...my friends may need me. Keep the old ship I'm taking Maria's, I used my communicator to scan for it last night when you were asleep and found it outside the forest. Don't blame yourself for what happened yesterday...I know you were only trying to help...and I thank you deeply for being so kind to a perfect stranger, the universe could truly use more animals like you and your uncle. Thank you again for all of your help...Creed..._

* * *

-**Undisclosed Location**-

Syler sat at his desk at the head of the Omni corporation looking over a mess of documents as a familiar face walked in...

"Ahh...Camille. I had a feeling that you'd survived that incident." Syler smiled.

"What can I say sir? I'm a survivor...a lot like yourself."

"Good...have you seen Strider? He seems to have given himself a leave of absence that is not sitting well with my nerves."

"No sir. I haven't seen him in quite some time." Camille replied.

"No matter. You are going to place a reward for me. I want you to get all the highest quality mercenaries you can find and send them after this ship..." Syler said holding up a photo of the Dark Star, "They are NOT to destroy it however, it contains very precious cargo that I need."

"What type of cargo sir?"

"A golden staff..." He said tossing her a photo of the staff in Fox's paws, "...a young fox..." He added tossing her a photo of Silver, "...and this one's head." He finished tossing a photo of Fox.

Camille picked up the photos, "I'll get right on it sir. Also, Corneria had declared war on Katina."

"Good...with them out of the way this should all go smoothly."

* * *

**AN: Alright then...chapter 32 took longer than I had planned for but...at least I got it done...YAY!! So chapter 33 will reveal more about what Omni has been after...and a bit more about Strider...(HINT: Not what you may think) Anyhoo...R&R and thanks for all the support. C y'all next time round. **


	34. Chapter XXXIII

-**Chapter XXIII**-

(Fichina surface)

The surface of Fichina was as it always was, barren and snow covered; Fox had taken Krystal, Voss, Vixy, Shera and Jared...all of who were covered in protective thermal gear made specially for withstanding the harsh, everlasting winter of Fichina's surface. Their visibility was nearly zero...if not for the GPS on their communicators they wouldn't even know where they were going...the icy wind that blew the thick coat of snow across the land stung at their eye so badly that they were all forced to wear protective goggles that kept the snow and wind from rendering them completely blind. The layer of snow on the ground made walking terribly hard as it reached to their shins, and at some points to their knees. Their large thermal coats made them moderately comfortable, it's hood also covered their muzzles with a small mask, which kept their lips and noses from chapping or even freezing. They were following a bizarre energy reading that the Dark Star had picked up when the locked the ship into orbit, it was strange though, of all the times that Fox had ever been here on the Great Fox the energy reading was never there...Krystal and His mother had put together the theory that something about the map they'd discovered had something to do with it. On either note Fox's communicator kept pointing their group east...

"I really wish that Climate Control Station hadn't been taken out by the Angalar!" Krystal was forced to yell over the howling wind.

"Me too!" Fox yelled back despite the fact that they were standing several feet from one another, "But we won't be here long! We just need to find out about that energy signal! Hopefully that's what we're here for!"

Their trudge through the snow covered landscape seemed to last forever, none of them knowing when they would come across something that at least seemed important. Finally something came up on Fox's scanner that caused him to stop in his place which made the others follow in suit. He seemed confused from Krystal's point of view, tapping at the screen on his communicator...

"What's wrong Fox!?" She yelled.

"We're standing right on top of it! We gotta spread out and search for anything unusual!"

"Right I'll tell the others!" Krystal replied walking slowly over to the others to relay the message.

Fox began to search the entire area they stood in but there was nothing of any significance, and after about an hour the group met in the middle of the area again...all with nothing to report...but as they began to walk away Fox noticed something...Shera was limping...

"HEY SHERA!! What happened to you leg!?" He asked rushing over to her.

"It's nothing I just tripped over something in the snow back there!"

"Show me where!"

Despite not having a clue why he would want to know her and Jared walked him to the place where she'd tripped, there was still a light imprint of her form in the snow. Fox immediately began to dig through the snow until he scratched the surface...an unusually hard surface...nothing like the layer of permafrost that normally blanketed the planet, something harder. He wiped away the remaining bit of snow to see that the ground beneath them...it was metal, and the object that Shera had tripped over was actually what appeared to be some sort of a pedestal. Vixy and Krystal were the first two to notice the Cerinian writing on the small pedestal. Vixy quickly called for everyone to give her some room. She stood still for a moment until Fox noticed her eyes fade into a clear white that matched her fur perfectly, as she crossed her arms across her chest. In an instant she quickly forced her arms out to each side. It seemed as though at her beckon call the snow stopped and with a strange swirl of what Fox could only call wind, the entire area became void of the blanket of white that once covered the ground...

"VOSS!! HELP HER!!" Krystal shouted to her brother, "She can't hold that shield up long!"

Though a bit hesitant Voss made his way to Vixy's side mimicking her and adding his own power to the shield that was already held up, causing the white vixen to release a deep breath of relief as the stress from the shield was slightly lifted. The two however still had some trouble, they were still weak from their time locked up by Omni. As Fox examined the small pedestal that Shera had tripped over he noticed a familiar looking recess in the metal and ran his gloved fingers over the small hole in the top of the pedestal...

"Krystal give me the staff!" He said quickly.

As soon as Fox had the staff in his hands he extended it plunging the bladed end into the hole...as soon as he did this the metal ground beneath them gave off a massive tremor that actually knocked Krystal and Fox to the ground. It was now that they noticed small, intricate lines in the ground as they turned an odd red color that even spanned far beyond Vixy and Voss's barrier. Fox noticed now that the snow outside the barrier was melting rapidly until he saw that they were standing in the middle of what seemed to be a platform roughly a hundred feet across. The red followed the swirling lines until it was on the furthest edge of the platform and then shot off disappearing into the snow again...but this time the snow parted into a long path that reached out into the distance. Fox signaled for the two Cerinians to drop the shield...

"What now!?" Voss asked.

"Isn't it clear!?" Fox replied, "We follow that!" He finished pointing to the path that was now perfectly visible.

* * *

-**000**-

They followed the strange glowing red path for what seemed like hours, their only signs that they were even going in the right direction was the glowing red path set before them. It was odd the ground didn't feel hot but, any snot that touched it melted away as soon as it landed on the metal ground. It was as they had been walking for some time that Krystal strode up beside Fox...

"Fox something isn't right...I--I feel...odd."

"You feel it too huh?" Fox asked, "Like this odd burning sensation in the pit of your stomach."

"Same here..." Voss's voice came from behind them.

"Me as well..." Vixy added moving up behind Fox.

"I think it may only effect Cerinians..." Fox said looking over his shoulder at Jared and Shera, "Those two don't seem to notice it at all. Mom is there anything you might have left out of your little story on the ship?"

"I'm sorry Fox...but, all of my time on Cerinia I was barred up in the shrines...what I told you is all that I've heard."

"What about you Voss?"

Voss thought back to his childhood, "Not much I don't really remember that much about me and Krystal's childhoods. If Arlex were here I'm sure he'd be able to tell you...seemed like he knew just about everything there was to know about Cerinia...but, I'm sure he died with the planet."

"Great our best hopes to understanding more about all of this crap...is a dead guy." Fox said to himself more than anyone.

As they traveled Fox noticed that the path ended somewhere up ahead as he could no longer see the endless red glow that emanated from the strange path. As the continued along it they finally came to a stop where the path end...it didn't end, rather it coiled downward into an open shaft of stairs that seemed to lead into the darkness of nowhere. Fox turned on the flashlight at the end of his assault rifle and peered down into the giant crevice in the planet. He picked up a nearby rock and tossed it in...not a sound...

Fox whistled into the hole in the ground, "That is one big fucking hole in the ground! How wide do you think that is Krys?"

"A good 20 meters across...we're not going down there are we?" Krystal replied.

"Seems like it...get your weapons to the ready. All the time that's passed since this was put here...there's not telling what the fuck's down there!"

With their guards up they all began to descend into the dark abyss the only light given to them coming from their flashlights. Over an hour passed and they all were able to remove their hoods and goggles which was a relief. The air was still frigid but, was no longer coupled with the blistering wind that blew on the surface, their every breath produced it's own cloud. The further down they traveled the darker it became until they were forced to keep their lights pointed at the stairs in front of them to keep from falling over the steps It felt as though they'd been walking for days when they finally reached the bottom of the lengthy staircase only to find that for some reason light was coming from a tunnel at the bottom, it was dim but there nonetheless. Fox cautiously looked around the corner into what appeared to be a long hallway that the light was originating from, but upon finding nothing he signaled for the others to follow him. The hallway didn't go very far at all...only a few hundred yards or so. It led them to what appeared to be a familiar looking black wall, there was a single hole at it's center with many small, indented, white lines stretching from it...

"Hey Krystal..." Fox said, "...hand me the staff again."

As soon as Fox had the staff in his paws he extended it again and slid it's bladed end into the small hole in the middle of the wall. The strange wall made a bizarre sound as a blue wave of energy surged through it, suddenly small sections near the top began to slowly fall and fold over on one another, becoming smaller and smaller until the wall was no more than a small pattern on the floor. Though odd in it's own way, they ignored the door and headed into the room it was blocking. The next room was massive, at least as wide as the staircase on the way down had been but, at it's center was what appeared to be a large altar of some kind, a bright blue light shone at the top of the massive pillar that started large but, became smaller near the top where they could all see what appeared to be something floating several feet off the ground. Everyone fanned out against the sides of the room. Fox and Krystal on the other hand headed up to the strange floating object. As they reached the top they could clearly make out what it was that seemed to defy gravity; it almost looked like the tip of a blade, curving to a small point then bending back straight in the other direction, it looked a lot like a V. The light that surrounded this part of the strange alter Fox found unusually warm, he walked into the pillar of light and as he looked around it was odd...everyone was perfectly still, like the whole world outside the light had come to a stand still, Krystal joined him neither of them knowing that from the outside the were completely out of sight, as if they were not even there. As Fox and Krystal studied that small blade floating there Krystal's staff began to glow an odd green color, it then jumped forward forcing Fox to struggle to keep it in his grasp, but, the unknown force that pulled on the staff wrenched if from his grip. The staff flipped through the air several times before connecting to the small blade at it's pointed end, giving the staff the appearance of a spear. As the whole thing sat there suspended in mid air Krystal reached up and plucked it from it's place, the fur on her tail and neck stood on end from the strange power that now exuded from the staff causing her to shiver...

"Fox...I..." She started but cut herself off as she noticed a blank look on the vulpine's face, "...Fox?"

A small drop of blood fell from his muzzle as he looked down to where the small point of a sword was protruding from his side...which suddenly withdrew allowing the stricken fox to fall to the ground. From behind him emerged the same animal that had confronted them at Sargasso Station, his wide brimmed hat perfectly hid all of his face spare for the horrible grin he wore. Krystal's eyes burned with tears, she couldn't tell whether Fox was alive or dead, either way she still leaped at his attacker with bloodthirsty intent. The strange fox dodged the spear she swung at him with astounding speed, until one grazed his chest slicing open his shirt revealing his black fur. In a test of skill and speed Krystal quickly whipped the headpiece of the staff to his face letting off a bolt of fire many times what the staff should have been capable of sending Fox's attacker off the alter. When Krystal followed she found the others unconscious. The one that had attacked Fox lay on the ground shaking the cobwebs out of his head...Krystal rushed in ready to kill but froze as she met the fallen fox's eyes...

"Arlex?"

The black fox rose to his feet dusting himself off, "Hello Krystal...you grew into quite the bothersome little pest."

"Why are you doing this? Why did you hurt Fox?!"

Arlex's laugh reminded her of some sort of dark nightmare, "Why? Why not? He's only half Cerinian...even less use than the full blooded ones. Now then..." He said extending his , "I believe you're holding something that belongs to me...or do I have to pry it from your lifeless fingers?" He asked beginning to approach her.

Fox was a mass of pain, his sight was still blurry...he was bleeding profusely from the stab wound, he was having a hard time breathing, but something was wrong with Krystal. Even though he was laying on the floor bleeding to death he managed to drag himself back through the barrier of light that separated himself from the others. Once he saw his mother and friends laying there his breathing picked up, his vision began to fade. A scream gathered his attention as he saw Strider strike Krystal across the face with the back of his fist forcing the staff to fly from her paws. Arlex rushed for the fallen staff but, just as he was about to reach for it, the object shot from the ground out of his reach. There was a blank expression on his face until he looked up to see Fox holding the staff, his eyes had washed over until they only part visible were his whites which were glowing a powerfully bright blue, the blue aura enveloped his entire body. As Krystal regained her senses she noticed Fox's condition...it was the same thing that had happened at the Beta Complex, Fox had gone over the deep end again. As she stood up and wiped the blood from her lip a powerful but familiar wind began to pick up and swirl about the room as the look on Fox's face grew more and more enraged; his ears lay back and he bared his fangs...Krystal didn't understand why but Arlex was hesitating on moving anywhere near the maddened vulpine. As the others seemed to slowly regain consciousness Vixy saw what was happening and rushed over to Krystal's side...

"What's going on?!" Vixy asked.

"I don't know he's done this once before...you all need to fall back to the stairwell before it gets any worse."

"What about you?"

"I need to try snapping him out of this before he hurts himself."

As Arlex looked on he made a quick dash for the staff in Fox's right paw, but, as he made it within distance to snatch it away his eyes were met by the snarled expression of the enraged fox. Arlex's body instantly went rigid as if he'd seen a ghost before his body shot into the air following Fox's gaze slamming into one wall after another, after the third time the body went limp and fell to the floor leaving a small spat of blood on the wall where he had impacted. As the others made their ways out of the room Krystal slowly worked her way to where Fox stood, just before she watched the blue fade from his eyes and his limp body fall to the cold floor. He'd lost far too much blood...Krystal quickly called down the hallway for help. Jared and Voss were the two that rushed into the room, as Jared lifted the incapacitated vulpine onto his shoulders Voss looked to the limp body of Arlex...

"Why would he do such a thing?" Voss asked.

"I don't know...and I don't care. He hurt Fox...I hope he's dead." Krystal said rushing off to catch up with Jared and the others.

Voss joined them all in the stairwell and not soon enough they were at the top of the massive staircase. Krystal stayed at Jared's side to watch Fox. She wasn't sure how badly he'd been hurt but it was serious she was more than sure of that...she knew of only one place they could safely take him to a hospital and it was far to far away...they were however going to have to risk it. The team made their way to the smaller ships they'd used to come down in and finally made their way off the planet luckily enough with the staff still in hand...but at what price?

* * *

**AN: So this chapter turned out shorter than planned but, I wanted to get it out faster than the last one...Sorry if I missed any spelling errors...Well R&R...hope you enjoy the chapter...Till next time C'ya... **


	35. Chapter XXXIV

-**Chapter XXXIV**-

(The Dark Star)

4:24am

The others didn't know what to make of Fox's condition, he'd lost far too much blood; his breathing had grown weak since they had arrived, and he was showing no signs of waking up. Krystal simply stayed by his side, hoping to see some sort of a positive change in his condition but, there was nothing. She worked over everything time and time again...Arlex was alive, but, what was wrong with him? The person she saw on Fichina was not the same Arlex she'd known all those years ago, the person she recalled was kind and would never raise a hand toward her...not even in anger, but, the Arlex that had attacked them seemed to have no trouble attacking anyone...even Voss who once idolized him for his strength and courage. Nothing made sense anymore. The stress of trying to find the answers to everything that had happened over the last month or so weighed her down; Omni, Arlex, Fox's condition, the Blade, these things all had something in common but, she could come nowhere near placing a common factor between them. Having exhausted her self both physically and mentally she could find no other recourse than to at least try to get some sleep...something she thought to be impossible at this late hour but, she found that once she lay down next to Fox in the only place she could find that wasn't occupied by someone else, she fell quickly to sleep...

It would be hours before she would wake again, the first thing she did upon waking up that morning after checking on Fox's condition, which sadly hadn't improved, was to take a shower. She tossed her clothes to one side before stepping into the stream of hot water. For a moment she was well and relaxed...but something didn't feel right. She opened her eyes only to realize that the shower head was spurting thick red liquid...blood. She quickly tried to run back out of the shower but the slick liquid caused her to trip and fall to the hard cold floor, as she lay there trying to figure out what could've just happened a familiar black figure walked into the room, a long blood soaked sword in his paw, and a sickening smile on his face. He rose his blade and as he brought it down on her she threw her arms up in front of her face, letting out a terrified scream...

"...ystal...Krystal!!"

At the sound of the voice the terrified vixen opened her eyes...

"Fox?"

She was certain she was still hallucinating or something, but, she found herself in bed, her head was pounding, she reached for her head only to recoil at the touch. When she saw Fox hovering over her she quickly sat up despite the discomfort throwing her arms around his neck...

"YOU'RE OKAY!!"

Fox's face was frozen as she did this not realizing that she had nothing on under the covers that had fallen from her torso as she sat up to hug him, making the only barrier between them the thing material of his shirt...but, his mind was elsewhere at the moment as Krystal seemed to have a slight memory problem...

"Of course I'm okay...what did you think...I was dying or something?"

Krystal pushed herself away from him and thought back, the memory was all there...she could recall every second...but Fox was just fine...

"We were on Fichina...you were hurt..."

Fox examined her face with a confused look, "Maybe you hit your head harder than I thought. Krystal we never left this ship, we were talking about what to do about Creed last night and you went into the bathroom to take a shower then I heard you hit the floor. You tripped and hit your head on the sink...you've been out for nearly 18 hours, it was one helluva concussion."

"So what? That was all a dream..." She asked wincing as she touched the patch of bandages on her head, "...brrr...Why is it so cold in here?" She asked shivering a bit, as she crossed her arms across her chest she realized that she wasn't wearing anything, her face instantly turned a deep purple as the blood rushed to her face, "WHERE THE HELL ARE MY CLOTHES!?"

"Wherever you put 'em...You were naked when I carried you in here last night. I didn't want to move you around too much so I did the stitching right here." Fox said turning his head away, "And it was hard enough to look at you in that state of affairs...much the less dress you. Sorry if I offended you."

"No Fox...thank you for helping. My head feels like it's on fire." She said taking the moment that he wasn't looking to go for at the least a pair of panties and a bra.

"That happens sometimes with a concussion like that...what were you dreaming about anyway? You kept saying that Arlex guy's name in your sleep."

Once she was at least moderately decent she started to walk to the closet but, her knees buckled, before she could hit the floor however Fox pulled her back upright, "You need to take it easy..." He said pulling her arm over his shoulders and helping her to the closet, "...there's no telling what kind of damage you did when you fell."

As she used Fox as a living crutch Krystal slid on a pair of sweat pants and a light red tee shirt, "What time is it?" She asked.

"4 o'clock last time I checked. We got a message from Creed a few hours ago...he says he's on his way back...but, he looked kinda depressed." Fox replied, "Come on..." He said stretching an arm across her back for extra support, "...maybe if we get you something to eat you'll feel better."

As Fox helped her slowly through the halls of the ship toward the kitchen, Krystal explained everything she'd seen while she was unconscious. Fox was a bit taken...they'd never talked to him about what he'd done to the Beta Complex, he recalled the scenario but to him it was all just a hazy daydream, he was surprised, to say the least, to hear that was capable of such power...but also confused. If he was only half Cerinian, then why was he capable of a power that much greater than Krystal who was a full Cerinian? He was also however a bit worried about Krystal...she seemed to be stuck on that dream she had while she was unconscious. She seemed to calm down a bit after a short while in the kitchen while Fox prepared them both something to eat...

"Well if it makes you feel any better..." Fox said as he sat their plates on the table she was seated at, "I've decided that we could stand to wait until Creed gets back to go down there."

"That dose make me feel a little better...but..."

Fox cut her off, "Krystal, I'm not going anywhere...and I damn sure ain't dying...not anytime soon."

Once they were both done with their food Fox took their plates back to the sink, as he got back to the table Krystal let out a rather long yawn, "You look tired still..."

"I am a little..." Krystal replied rubbing her eye a bit with her palm.

"Well come on then..." Fox said lending her his shoulder again, "...lets get you back to bed."

Fox led her back to his old room, which had recently been made into Krystal's personal room, and lay her on the bed, making sure she was comfortable before turning to leave...until he found his shirt was caught on something and turned around to see that Krystal was trying to hold him in place...

"Don't leave..." She pleaded, "...I wanna make sure you're still here when I wake up."

Fox crawled next to her and lay down drawing his arm and the blankets around her, he had no intention of staying...after all he wasn't necessarily tired, it was just one of those nights in which he couldn't sleep. Yet, as he lay there feeling the warmth from her body he found himself in a state of relaxation that was nearly hypnotic, the sound of her sleeping breaths didn't help matters either as he found the sound incredibly soothing, not to mention the sheer fact that he was this close to her. As his eyelids began to gather a tired weight, he lay his muzzle on the side of her neck falling quickly into a peaceful sleep like he'd not known in some time...

* * *

-**000**-

When Fox woke up he looked at the clock on his old night stand...it was 10:42am, he found himself a bit hesitant to get up from his current position, holding Krystal while she slept...but he had some questions for his mother at the time. He had to admit that when he had laid down he wasn't all that tired but, to tell the truth he had never had a more relaxed sleep. He was still dressed as he was the other day, his normal gray tank top and his camo jeans...so he didn't bother to get dressed any further, he simply headed out of the room and toward the kitchen where he could find something to eat...as well as hopefully find his mother. For some reason he missed the sounds that filled the halls of the ship when there was a ship full of Cerinians, at least some sort of ambiance to take away the dreary quiet that normally filled the halls until someone's echoing footsteps came through the area. He was happy however at the same time that not so many would be getting in his way when trying to do maintenance on the ship. He was a bit hopeful that he'd find his mother in the ship's kitchen but, sadly the room was devoid of life.

After a small snack Fox headed out into the halls of the Dark Star...his mother only really went to several different rooms of the ship. As of recently she'd been spending most of her time on the bridge or in the docking bay. He tried the docking bay but found the only people there were Roxy and Lia moving things around, while Silver was doing the maintenance that he'd been shown to the arwings...that only really left one place for one place. Sure enough when he walked onto the bridge he found the white vixen sitting in the captain's seat, the holographic imager displayed several newsprints from the time she'd missed while locked away...

"Catching up on the past huh?"

"I didn't know, that Andross killed James..." She said in a sort of a depressed voice.

"Yeah. After he was told that it was Andross that planted the bomb that allegedly killed you...he couldn't be stopped."

"That was just like him...it's good to know that Andross met his end at the hands of a McCloud." She replied, "But enough about the past...did you need something dear?"

Fox strode over to her side, "You know a lot about the Cerinians right?"

Vixy chuckled, "I should...I am one."

"Is telepathy the only power they normally have?" Fox asked.

"No...Cerinians have been known to display a great verity of different abilities..."

"What about...precognition?"

Vixy seemed a bit confused for the most part, "On a very rare occasion yes...my great grandfather was an Oracle...Why do you ask?"

"It's just that...you know how Krystal hit her head yesterday?"

"Oh yes...is she doing any better?"

"A lot better...but, apparently while she was unconscious she had some sort of odd dream about me being seriously hurt on the surface when we go down to Fichina..."

"Was she talking in her sleep?" Vixy asked.

"Yes..." Fox answered.

"Could you see her eyes?"

"No..."

"I don't know what to say Fox..." Vixy said, "If it was a vision of the future...you should be careful. The visions of an Oracle can be very accurate but, like in most stories nothing is set in stone when it comes to the future, what she saw could have been one of many possible futures...some could be a great deal worse."

"Well some things are already different than the dream...for one thing we aren't going until Creed gets back...Which should be here in a few hours." Fox said, "And second off...I'm thinking about leaving you and Krystal here on the ship. If something like what she described dose happen I don't want you two caught in the crossfire."

"Fox. Krystal told me what happened last time you did that...do you really want her to feel like that again?"

Fox had been beaten on that point, he really didn't want Krystal to hate him again, "I don't want her to hate me...but, I also don't want her to get hurt."

Vixy noticed the down look on his face, "Then explain it to her. If you love her you're just going to have to respect her decision."

Fox looked at the floor with a defeated sigh, "You're right...thanks mom."

With what he'd been told clearly still in his mind he made his way back through the halls, he was a bit worried about Krystal in the first place. When he stepped back into the room he smiled, the poor vixen was still asleep, but at least she was smiling while hugging a pillow rather tightly which she most likely had mistaken for him in her sleep. Fox slipped his boots back off and decided to try sneaking back in beside her...he really did enjoy everything about lying there with her; the warmth, the comfort, and the smell. As he lay on his back behind her she sharply rolled over laying her head on his chest with her pillow still clutched in her paws...

"You left this morning..." She voiced keeping her eyes closed.

"Sorry but...I needed to ask my mom a few questions."

"And?" She asked.

It took a moment for Fox to find the proper words, "Krystal...I want you and her to stay here when we go to the surface."

The sentence caused her eyes to snap open, "What? But..."

"Please hear me out..." Fox said putting a finger in front of her muzzle, "I love you Krystal...and if anything like what you said happens down there, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you or my mom were caught up in it and hurt..." He said hugging her.

"But Fox...I..."

"Krystal please." Fox cut her off. Krystal's ear flinched as she felt something wet landed on it...

Krystal took that moment to look at his face, his green eyes were full of tear, just the thought of loosing her caused him more pain that she could imagine...she never could stand to see him crying because of it causing the same effect in her, "Fox please stop..." She said trying to fight back her own tears, "If it means that much to you I won't go. Just please stop crying..." She pleaded holding him tightly.

"Thank you Krystal...I love you..." He said as his tears started to calm down a bit.

"I know...I love you too, but if you don't come back. I'll never forgive you..."

"It'd take a force greater than god himself to keep me from coming back to you."

* * *

-**000**-

Fox came to as he heard MIA's voice sound over the PA system...

"There is an unidentified ship attempting to enter the docking bay captain...pilot has claimed to be crew member Creed."

"Just let him in..." Fox replied.

"Yes captain."

Fox made sure he didn't wake Krystal when he slid out of bed, he made his way toward the docking bay where he would find Creed checking over what appeared to be his new ship...something was different though...he had...arms. Fox made his way to the massive vulpine noticing that he looked unusually down...even for Creed.

"Welcome back Creed...everyone's been worried about you."

There was a moment in which Creed didn't reply, "Thanks..." He said in a flat tone.

"So what's with the new arms?"

"Some kinda synthetic polymer..." Creed answered.

"What the hell happened to you? This isn't your ship."

Creed turned to face the ship laying a paw on the hull then looking to the floor, "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Well that is your business...but, we'll be going to the surface soon...I want you to come with us...you feel up to it?"

Creed sighed deeply, "Yeah...just let me know when we leave..."

Fox didn't like how Creed was being...so much depression wasn't like him at all, but there were more things to think of than how one person was feeling at the moment...he could look into how Creed was doing later. There was however one more person that he wanted to talk to. He made his way toward Silver and Creed's room, he knocked on the door twice but received no sort of reply. He knocked one last time before sighing in frustration...

"MIA override the door to this room..." As soon as Fox said this the door slid open revealing that Silver was indeed in the room, with his face practically merged with that of a familiar pink bunny, Fox smiled for a moment, "Ahem!" He cleared his throat loudly gathering the two's attention, causing Roxy to quickly leave the room in a fit of embarrassment, Silver watched her leave and cast Fox a slightly irritated look.

"You know when someone knocks on a door...to avoid an embarrassing situation, you may want to answer." Fox suggested, "But that's not important now...I'll apologize to Roxy later. Right now I need you to get your gear."

"But didn't you say that I wasn't going to the surface?" Silver asked.

"Change of plans...it's just you, me, Creed, Voss, and Jared...none of the girls are coming with us."

"Alright...and I'm sorry...but Roxy told me not to answer the door." Silver said.

"No apologies necessary...just keep the lewdness down a bit." Fox said heading toward the door, "There is such a thing as learning too fast."

As Fox left the room he was stopped by a very embarrassed pink furred bunny...

"Listen I'm sorry...not going to the door was my fault don't blame Silver."

"Now why would I do that?" Fox asked, "You should say good bye before he goes to the surface with me."

"I'll go too."

"No you won't...I'm not risking any of you girls on this...me, Silver, Creed, Voss, and Jared...that's it."

Roxy sighed, "Fine...but you'd all better come back alive."

Fox started to walk away, "I'll see what I can do about that."

* * *

-**000**-

A bit more than an hour later Krystal woke to the sound of Fox's voice echoing from the PA system...

"Voss, Jared, and Silver...report to the docking bay to meet with me and Creed...we leave for the surface in 10 minutes. So move your asses."

Krystal quickly rolled out of bed but found that she still had a hard time with her balance...but regardless she headed toward the docking bay. As she walked she recalled the promise she'd made to Fox this morning, but she at least had to wish him luck and it seemed he'd forgotten an important factor to what he was looking for. Soon she walked into the docking bay seeing that while the others were all boarding their small fighters Fox was doing some last second checks on his arwing. As he heard the docking bay doors open and close he turned to look behind him, seeing her walking toward him with her staff in hand...She didn't really say anything at first, rather as she approached him she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his lips into hers which caused Fox's paws to go to her waist pulling her close to him. After a minute or so Krystal broke their kiss and rested her head on his should...

"You'd better come back..." She whispered.

Fox gently ran his paw through her hair, "I will come back...I promise."

As they released their embrace, Krystal wiped away a stray tear and handed Fox the staff, "According to my dream you'll need this."

"Thank you...I'd hate to get there only to find that I left this behind."

Fox was the last one to board his arwing, it didn't help leaving with Krystal watching him...the look she gave him really made him want to stay but he had no choice but to go. He was the last to leave the ship. Little did he know not everyone would come back...

* * *

**AN: Sorry if this took some time but...I've been incredibly sick:-( Anyhow the next Ch will be one of those long dragged out fights...I just gotta get rid of this stupid stomach virus. Well anyhow R&R and I'll see you all next time...**


	36. Chapter XXXV

**AN: Sorry this took so long...writer's block and the whole stomach virus thing kinda sucked the life outta me for the past few days but...yay I can finally stand up without tossing ma cookies.**

Song of the day: Crossfade- Invincible

* * *

-**Chapter XXXV**-

Everyone was attired just as Krystal had predicted, but the thick jackets, masks, and goggles were easy enough to guess considering what the planet's constant condition was. As Fox leaped from his arwing the harsh chill in the snowy air seemed to make the uncovered parts of his face go numb, but at least the wind wasn't half as bad as she had described. Everyone gathered by the arwings, to make a double check on their things...

"So where is this energy signal originating from?" Creed asked.

Fox took a moment to examine the specs on his communicator, "Hmm...about a mile and a half that way." He replied pointing to the east, "You all got your gear?"

"I'm good..." Creed answered.

"Same here..." Silver added.

"I just want to get back to Shera..." Jared said.

"I want to hear him stop complaining." Voss sighed.

"I'll take that as a yes...lets move."

Though not as bad as Krystal had described it, Fox never did like the planet in the first place, he liked the cold quite a bit but, there could always be too much of a good thing. They headed out toward the direction that Fox had pointed out, at some points the snow was knee high, at others only ankle deep, but regardless of that the snow seemed perpetual...an unending blanket of white clinging to the air and caressing the ground. Fox found it to be a beautiful sight and after a rather lengthy excursion into the icy wilderness Fox stopped the group...

"What's going on Fox?" Creed asked.

"You feel the difference in the ground here?" Fox replied with his own question, "We were walking solid stone a moment ago and now it feels like steel or something. Everyone spread out and start looking for something like a small pedestal."

Everyone did as Fox said and the group split up in the large area, stopping wherever the ground became normal again, but nobody found anything and they'd been searching for hours, their feet were cold and tired and as far as they could have known, whatever was fueling Fox's desires on the frozen planet was simply myth...

"Fox we can't find anything...there's nothing here." Creed said as they returned to the center of the area, "We're all tired and I'm sure the girls are getting worried...we can come back in the morning..."

Fox sighed as he looked to the others, he was right, the fox hung his head in defeat, "Fine...lets go."

Happy that he'd finally said it and the others began to walk off, Creed looked back to Fox, he looked confused...

"What's wrong Fox?" Creed asked.

"Krystal was so certain that there was something down here..."

"Fox you're thinking way to fucking hard about this...If it isn't here we'll just look somewhere else."

As Creed turned to follow the others the sheer frustration that Fox felt forced him to kick his right foot into the snow before him. However, the force of his childish kick was stopped in place as his toes let him know it was time to scream...

"SON OF A BITCH!!" His voice cracked through the howling wind.

The others were quick to run back to him, "What the hell happened?!" Creed yelled.

"I think I found it..." Fox replied hopping on one foot while holding his other..

Where there was now a large trench in the snow, something black and shiny was slightly visible. Creed quickly began to dig into the snow until the small rectangular pedestal was in view. Without a second thought toward it Fox took the staff from his belt and extended it shoving it's bladed end into the small crevice in the small square of metal...the reaction was just as Krystal had described it. The small thin patterns along the ground that she had mentioned began to show from beneath the snow at first glowing and making the melting snow about their feet look as blood flowing onto the black metal that appeared below them, as the seemingly bloody snow washed away. Fox snickered at the others...

"Told ya she was right." He said removing the staff and collapsing it before placing it back onto his belt.

As Fox led the others down the path that Krystal had mentioned Creed pulled up beside him, "Do I have to tell you that something is a bit odd about all of this?" He asked, "If the Cerinians were trying to keep this weapon ever being used...Why do you have a key to unlock it?"

"I don't know...something smells pretty fucking fishy about all of this. My mom said that the blade was broken into four parts...but, she also said that they had no way of destroying it either...but, if that's true...How'd they break it in the first place?" Fox said, "I'm not a half wit Creed, I wanna get this thing to Slippy ASAP and find out what the fuck it is and whether or not it can be destroyed, and if possible what it dose..."

"I'm glad to see that you're thinking this through."

The walk was long and tiring down the narrow path that was seemingly permanently cut through the snow, and the winds seemed as though they were picking up bringing an added chill to the already frigid air. Soon enough they found themselves before the large empty shaft that had been in Krystal's vision, Fox didn't hesitate before beginning his decent into the bowels of the planet, shortly followed after by the others who had recently traded in their hope for rest, for a mind full of curiosity and intrigue. None of them seemed to like the pit that seemed to descend into the pits of hell but, there was too much curiosity to stop them now. They were forced to rely on small LED lights that they kept at the end of their assault rifles, as the pit they descended into was darker than midnight, making the stairs rather hazardous. This gaping wound in the surface of the planet seemed to descend forever, before they reached the bottom, Fox didn't hesitate when they got to the empty room at the bottom...instead he headed down a lit hall, to behold the room that was the main purpose of Krystal's dream in the first place. Fox was amazed at how much it looked like he'd imagined it, spare for the pillar of light with the rotating piece of the blade at it's center. Fox took a few steps toward the altar at the center of the mountain of metal before him...

"You all stay clear of that door and watch yourselves." He called back before continuing his was up.

Normally with this sort of situation he'd have been cautious of a segment of metal dangling in mid-air but, with the way Krystal had described everything he felt as though he'd already lived this out once before. He took a short breath before walking into the pillar of light, as soon as he could see the small section of the weapon he held out the stall allowing it to freely jolt from his paws and connect with the small "V" shaped blade, the now spear turned staff floated there as the blade had perfectly vertical rotating on some sort of unknown axis. As he took the weapon in his paws once again, a sudden surge of unexplainable energy instantly took his breath away as it jolted through him leaving his fur standing on end...

"Wow...what the fuck was that?" He asked shuttering a bit. He shook it off however, "Well...maybe this Arlex guy was a fabrication after all...it was just a dream."

As Fox exited the pillar of light he noticed that all his allies were still there and no sign of the black fox, "Well maybe something was off about that dream after all..." Creed said as Fox approached them.

"Yeah..." Fox scoffed sarcastically with false enthusiasm..._Somethin' still doesn't feel right though. _Fox thought to himself.

"Alright..." Creed said turning toward the others, "We've got what we came here for...so lets get the fuck outta here."

Their entire trip back to the surface Fox couldn't shake this uneasy feeling he had in the pit of his stomach. Unfortunately so many stairs are easier at a decent than to climb them. They were all exhausted from such a climb that the frigid air of the surface was welcome to their burning lungs. They didn't mind that Krystal's vision was wrong on any account but, Fox still felt unsettled about the whole thing, he constantly had the feeling that someone, somewhere nearby was watching him. After a bit more walking they found themselves in the midst of the large, black, metal area Fox had left on the ground that had melted the snow...but as the others stopped to rest Fox stepped forward and drew out his black knife as well as the collapsed spear that was slung to his belt...

"Come on out Strider...or should I be calling you Arlex?!" Fox shouted into the wind.

Creed looked at Fox in confusion, "Fox don't be a fucking nut...there's nobody else here..."

As if from nowhere a powerful voice carried through the sheet of falling snow, "My...we certainly have sharp sense don't we? There is no possibility that you could have seen me."

"I don't need eyes to see you...I can smell a piece of shit a mile away..."

With that said a dark figure appeared in the blanket of snow that fell from the heavens, "Now now...lets not harm one another with words." Arlex chuckled.

"You're right..." Creed agreed moving to Fox's side while Silver fell back to the opposite side, "...lets use bullets instead." He finished aiming his weapon at the animals head.

Silver and Jared followed him in step while Voss said nothing...he was too stunned by what he was witnessing...

The hail of gunfire that opened up was indeed deafening at close range, as the wall of deadly projectiles rushed at Arlex the vulpine made a single motion another sword strapped to his back, nearly identical to the one he'd left with Fox, in that instant the fox seemed to completely vanish from sight. As if from nowhere a burst of air rushed by them leaving a streak in the snow; Fox felt the familiar warms of fresh blood trail down his cheek, but even worse yet he heard the familiar sound of bodies falling to a hard floor. Fox turned to see Arlex now standing a short distance behind him, his sword covered in blood...as he looked around Fox found that the others had been slashed multiple times and most were bleeding rather badly. Fox stepped away from his friends with his eyes fixed on Arlex. As the two dropped into fighting stances Voss rushed out between them facing his old friend...

"Arlex what are you doing? Stop thi..."

Voss's body had went rigid as Fox watched the point of Arlex's sword rupture through the young Cerinian's back, Fox could barely hear the black vulpine's voice, "Sorry kid...Arlex doesn't live here anymore."

Arlex wore a sick smile as he pulled his blade free allowing the limp Cerinian to fall to the ground. It was true that he and Fox were never really close at all but, the thought of the look on Krystal's face when her brother was taken back to her, he wasn't the easiest person to get along with...but, to be attacked like that without any remorse was something no animal deserved. As Fox looked to Voss, who didn't seem to be breathing, he could almost hear Krysta's heartbroken cries at finding her brother was dead...it was a sound that Fox never wanted to hear again, a sound that he was sad to admit he'd caused before. Fox's face was taken over by a snarl of sheer hatred, every thought of Krystal's possible reaction to her brother being stricken down by someone she'd trusted so much in her life fueled the hate that Fox had already grown for this loathsome creature. Fox's expression grew more hate filled by the moment; his teeth were clenched so hard that his gums bled, the veins on his forehead bulged profusely...he'd never lost a man on any mission and now that record was no more, fresh tears of anger rolled from his eyes...

"What's the matter? Was he a friend of yours?" The sadistic fox asked with an evil grin..._Come on. Where is this power Syler speaks of?_

"You seem to be short of words...perhaps you don't care about these pieces of refuse. Perhaps I need to go after the ones on the ship next..."

Creed came to with a severe pain in his gut, his arm was slightly damaged and his eye was sealed shut with blood, but, that wasn't the first thing he thought of. Creed looked other toward Fox who was now trading attacks with Arlex...but, something was off, Fox seemed distracted but, nonetheless Arlex was capable of moving much faster than he was at the moment. He was toying with Fox taking small swipes at him at random opening small cuts all over his body. Creed began to check up on the others that had been hit; Silver had gotten off easy, two slashes across the ribs and one across the chest, Jared wasn't nearly as lucky a much deeper gash was cut into his shoulder, he'd only been hit once but it was worse than any on Silver or Creed. That was when he noticed Voss laying in a pool of his own blood. Creed was fast to rush to the fallen Cerinian's side, he didn't want to see Krystal hurt almost as much as Fox didn't. Creed rolled the vulpine onto his back and inspected the inch long stab wound in the center of Voss's chest that still drained the animal's life force from his body...

"Oh man..." Creed said looking back to the others noticing that they were coming too as well, "Silver...Jared get over here."

The two made it to his side as quickly as possible, "You two get him to the Dark Star right now."

"What about him?" Jared asked looking to Fox.

"Don't worry about him just go!" Creed shouted.

Creed watched on as Fox tried to keep up pace with Arlex. Fox kept up as well he could using both weapons in his disposal to try everything possible to kill the creature but, the swordsman always seemed to be several steps ahead of him. Fox was in no perfect condition at the moment either, there were bleeding lacerations about his entire body, some were only minor scrapes compared to what the sword could have done but, others were rather deep and he couldn't tell if it was the blood loss or not but his sight was slowly fading, darkness clutched to the edges of his vision while all else was a mere blur of what it should have been. As their fight ensued more and more tiny cuts appeared along his arms and legs , either Arlex, or whoever this was, was toying with him or tearing him apart slowly. There was a moment that Fox believed he would die in this place but a shot rang out from Creed's position...Arlex instantly stopped, the bullet that zipped through his chest had caught him completely off guard as he fell to his knees then face first to the metal ground. Creed took the moment to make his way to Fox's side where he could clearly see the many small slashes on the fox's body...

"You alright man?" He asked after catching the staggering Fox, "He cut your ass up pretty fuck'n good."

Fox seemed completely out of breath, "Yeah...tell me...about it." He replied between labored breaths.

"Come on then..." Creed said helping the injured animal stand, "Lets get back to the ship...WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Creed was cut off as Fox knocked him to the ground, only to see Arlex swipe his blade across Fox's chest issuing a spray of blood through the air painting the black fox with a red face. Creed could do nothing but watch...

* * *

-**000**-

As Krystal sat in Fox's captain seat a slight warning alarm sounded followed by MIA's voice from the PA system...

"Reading abnormal energy pattern on planetary surface...Danger class Code-4...Code-6...Code-10...Danger class unreadable."

**(BTW. The E.D.C "Energy Danger Class" system goes from Code-1: mild life threat...to Code-12: Planetary threat)**

"That can't be right...nothing has a level over 12." Krystal said to herself, "MIA...bring up planetary view on the main screen."

As the large image of the planet just below the ship appeared Krystal placed a paw over her mouth; the snow clouds that had dominated the atmosphere were all swirling about the planet leaving one massive gaping hole in their formation, for the first time the surface of the planet could be clearly seen. Despite the beauty of the planet Krystal could only hope that this had nothing to do with the area Fox was in...

* * *

**-000-**

Creed was frozen in place, it seemed as though time had completely come to a standstill in the area, he could clearly see a large hole in the constant snowstorm overhead giving it the appearance of a hurricane around them, there was no more snowfall around them, it was eerily quite, and despite the fact that Fox was badly injured he had not moved an inch since he'd been struck. As he faced off with Arlex, Creed noticed a look of fear that washed over the dark vulpine's face, as he seemed to be forcing himself to stand...Creed could feel some sort of bizarre force in the pit of his gut that made him feel incredibly uneasy. A dead wind blew through the area and Creed realized what had happened, he quickly made an exit of the area hoping that the aftermath could be much less than catastrophic.

Fox's face had become as calm as the area they now stood in, as Arlex looked on in his frightened state he realized that the fox's eyes were not white this time as Syler had explained from his experience with the enraged Fox, they were instead this time a deep pit less blue that covered his eyes entirely. The energy that hit Arlex seemed to come from nowhere...it forced him to his knees for a broad moment before he was able to stand back up again...

"DON'T TELL ME THAT'S THE BEST YOU CAN DO!" He shouted leaping at the Fox.

Arlex swung his sword at the fox's face but he came to an abrupt stop in mid strike with his blade only a mater of centimeters away from Fox's face, "You've not begun to see what I'm capable of..." Fox replied in a voice that was not his own. This gave Arlex an uncertain expression as he was released being pushed several yards across the ground.

This time Arlex shot at Fox with the same blistering speed he'd used to take out the others but, at the last moment Fox seemed to easily sidestep the downward strike of the blade which lodged into the ground. The tranced fox then kicked the showing flat edge of the blade with a bizarre force which shattered the blade completely...

As Fox stepped back from the dark vulpine who discarded the now useless weapon the same calm yet eerie voice echoed into Arlex's head, he hadn't even realized until now that Fox was not speaking at all, the speech was completely telepathic, "Now who's holding back?" The voice chuckled, "You or Us?"

"_Us??_" Arlex questioned his words before rampaging toward him again.

This time Arlex used his speed and his claws to attack the fox, but, there was no avail, one attack after another was dodged at the last second...it was as if Fox was reading every movement before he made it. Arlex finally leaped several feet into the air driving his heel down onto the top of Fox's head. Arlex landed with a cocky smile as he watched a small stream of blood flow down between the fox's eyes rolling down the side of his muzzle. Fox's tongue slipped across his lip wiping away the blood with a devious smile, "_Our turn..._" The eerie voice echoed into Arlex's skull as Fox rose his eyes to meet the black furred fox's. Almost on the same second that their eyes met, a ferocious impact from Fox's left foot which hoisted the black fox into the air. With and unbelievable burst of speed Fox shot into the air after Arlex, as Fox met him in mid-flight the light orange furred vulpine rolled forward driving his heel into the black fox's chest in a similar fashion that he had been hit in the head...this attack however drove Arlex to the metal ground with such force that it planted him into a large dent in the black metal below. Creed had been taking notice of everything from his station on the sidelines, Us? Our? What was going on? This wasn't Fox's fighting style at all, he'd never heard of anyone being so strong or fast...last time this had happened it was bad but, this time it even effected the environment, he was stronger than the last time he'd done this...it was far worse this time. The first time that Creed had seen Fox go into such a rage he had thought that it was some sort of miracle, now he wasn't so sure I seemed more like Fox was just not himself...

As Fox landed near the seemingly unconscious dark furred fox, he staggered forward a bit...despite this massive increase in his abilities the severe blood loss that worked through his body was beginning to effect him. Creed took this moment in which Fox was panting heavily from the blood loss to approach him...

"Fox?" He asked cautiously.

Fox's head snapped about to face Creed but grimaced in pain as the familiar point of a small black knife jutted from his side. The grimace on Fox's face contorted into a snarl of hatred as he spun about, instantly locking Arlex's neck under his arm and pulling upward with enough force to send a loud crushing sound out over the silent landscapes, Fox finished by keeping the creature in it's position taking him by his legs and pulling until his back gave in resounding another loud crunching sound as the animal's buttocks met the back of his skull. Fox didn't even have the time to discard the body as he fell to the hard metal ground. Creed couldn't believe what he'd just saw...Fox was strong no question, but, he didn't have the strength that it would take to fold an animal Arlex's size in half. As the snows came again Creed retrieved Fox as well as Krystal's staff and headed back to his arwing to rush Fox as quickly as possible to the Dark Star as possible...he was in bad shape and was still bleeding profusely...

**(Several hours later on Fichina...)**

Arlex's head shot up from under the snow that had covered him and twisted to one side resulting in another loud series of pops giving him a clear look at the sky...

"That is very interesting indeed..."


	37. Chapter XXXVI

**-Chapter XXXVI-**

-3 days later-

11:46am

Fox was in so much pain when he finally woke up that he couldn't even find it within himself to speak, the only sound he could manage was a pained groan as his eyes attempted to adjust to the bright lights over his head...for a few brief moments he was certain he was dead but as his vision fully returned he found himself staring at several familiar faces; His mother, Creed, Roxy, Silver, oddly enough Shera without Jared, but no Krystal. Everyone that was there when Arlex had attacked were all heavily bandaged, Creed in particular had a large patch over one of his eyes. Fox tried to say something but could only cough at the feeling of his vocal cords attempting to form th words...

"Don't try to talk...you ain't in no shape to talk." Creed said laying a paw on Fox's shoulder, "We got the blade fragment, that Arlex guy is pretty fuckn' dead, and we're safe on Kew...but, Voss...he...he didn't make it...died a few hours after we got here. They said the sword clipped an artery to his heart or something."

The look Fox gave Creed was enough to say what he couldn't...

"Haven't seen her for over a day man...disappeared from Katt and Falco's place when she heard the news." Creed said, "I'll go see if I can find her...it'll cheer her up a little to hear that you're okay at the least."

Creed promptly made his way out of the room...

"You gave us all a good scare...the doctors weren't so sure you were ever going to wake up." Vixy said, issuing a half assed smile out of the pain wracked vulpine, "It's still good to see that you're alright Fox..." She said kissing him on the forehead, "But you need to get some sleep. I'll see you again later." She said leaving the room with Shera.

At that point Silver moved over to Fox, there were several stitched up slashes on his face, "We're all happy that you're okay Fox. You and Roxy taught me everything I know...you're a lot more important than you may think..." He said grimacing as he placed a paw on his side.

"Alright come on..." Roxy said pulling his arm across her shoulders, "You aren't even supposed to be out of bed." She said leading him toward the door.

"I...feel fine." Silver said clearly lying as his right leg wouldn't support him and his ribs were heavily bandaged.

"Yeah well...fine or not you're staying in that bed until the doctor says otherwise..."

"Alright Roxy...but, could I at least get some normal food? Stuff around here tastes worse than Lia's cooking..."

Fox would have laughed if he could have...it was Silver's first time being hospitalized for any reason as far as Fox was aware, and he seemed to be having a bad time with the horrible food. Fox was left to no more than his thoughts for some time, only time to think about what had happened on Fichina...and to be honest he had no idea what had taken place, the last thing he remembered was pain. He moved around a bit only to find that most of his body was covered in thick bandages, there was a stinging pain that stretched from his right shoulder to his left hip, as well as an equally horrible pain in his left side, it seemed like the only part of him he could move was his arms. It was as he sat there for a time that he began to feel less pain from the many wounds across his body...his next visitor helped as well, he smiled a bit and waved as he could see a familiar blue face peeking into the room. She looked understandably upset...unfortunately Fox couldn't give her any words of comfort...

As Krystal stood over him a tear fell from her eyes, Fox quickly made a motion with his arms signaling her to hug him. She didn't hesitate in sitting on the edge of his bed and allowing the injured vulpine to take her in his arms, which didn't help any with the tears knowing that he was in such a condition as he could feel her silent sobs beginning to tug at her shoulders...

"I--I'm...sorry." He managed to say stroking her hair and holding her at tightly as he could, "...so...sorry."

A few minutes later Katt entered the room, "Fox I--" She cut herself off as she saw that the two had fallen asleep in their current position, "I guess it can just wait then."

* * *

**-000-**

Fox didn't mind waking the way he did with Krystal's muzzle laying across his neck, her weight aggravated his wounds, but he hardly found the means to care. She'd just lost her only brother, she needed someone to care right now, more than she ever had in fact. His right arm had gone numb from being trapped under her body, but he didn't dare to move it,but, soon she shuffled a bit...

"Hey are you awake?" He was a bit happy to hear his own voice.

"MMM...no go back to sleep."

He chuckled a bit to himself, "Forget it then just go back to sleep."

It wasn't but a few minutes later that Katt came into the room, "Fox? You awake?"

"More or less..." Fox answered.

She seemed to have slight problems with her back, which seemed understandable with her pregnant belly, "It's good to see that you're okay..." She said finding herself a seat, "...you had us all worried."

"How's Falco's blue ass do'n?"

"Worried but happy to hear that you're okay..." Katt replied.

"I can see the worry. You're as big as a house..."

Katt smiled, "Yeah...Falco doesn't know the truth yet."

"Huh?" Fox replied not getting her point.

"Twins Fox..."

Fox's eyes grew in size, "So what? Boy? Girl?"

"Mm..." She hummed shaking her head, "Both..."

Fox started to laugh out loud...

"What's so funny?"

"You...you have to get me a picture of his face when you tell him."

Krystal stirred from her sleep, "What's with all the noise?" She asked groggily while rubbing her eyes, "Oh hi Katt..."

Fox took the moment she sat up to readjust his arm's position, "You look exhausted..." The pink feline said.

"Haven't slept in days..." Krystal replied laying back down and pulling the overhanging blanket over herself.

"Well then you both need to get some sleep..." Katt replied standing up.

"And you..." A familiar voice came from the door, "Need to stop disobeying doctor's orders."

Fox could recognize that voice anywhere as he turned to look at the blue avian standing in the doorway, he hadn't changed a bit; his feathers were just as well taken care of as always, his build hadn't slouched at all, and he still wore the black shades that he loved...

"Hey buddy..." He said looking to the brutalized fox, "You look like you just got out of a fight with a weed whacker."

Fox chuckled, "Close enough, it had a blade and it moved pretty damn fast."

Falco helped Katt to her feet, "I'll be back to talk to you later...and you were told to stay off your feet as much as possible." He complained on his way out the door.

"You sure that was Falco...never really heard him worry about anyone other than himself." Krystal said trying to go back to sleep.

Fox ran his paw through her hair, "Love dose some strange things to ya...It can even change people as hardheaded as Falco. Or as stubborn as me." He said moving his right arm around her, "I...love you Krystal."

Krystal kissed the corner of his muzzled then nudged his chin with her muzzle before laying it across his neck, "Good...now go back to sleep, you need your rest."

* * *

**-000-**

A few rooms down the hall from Fox's, Silver had just lay down to find some sleep...he however wasn't tired, instead he found himself staring out the window to his room. What were they all going to do now? A small part of him wanted to find this weapon and help Fox, but, a much greater part of him understood what Krystal thought about everything...he too did not want to see Fox in this type of situation again, especially not now that he knew first hand what kind of pain these types of injuries could cause. As he sat there staring out the window a very familiar smell filled his senses; a delightfully sweet smell that he couldn't quite place as he had no idea what it's real origin was, but he knew without a doubt what was causing that smell now...

"Hi Roxy..."

Roxy smiled as she sat on the side of his bed, she'd left to the building's cafeteria to get something to eat, "How'd you know it was me?"

"I could smell you coming down the hall." Silver chuckled.

Roxy knew what he meant but couldn't pass on the opportunity to screw with him, "Well...If I smell that bad maybe I should just leave."

"You know what I meant..." The fox replied shaking his head as he rolled his eyes.

"Is something wrong? You don't sound like your usual self."

Silver sighed, "No...just thinking."

"What about?" The pink bunny asked.

"Mainly what happened back on Fichina. I know Creed told us that Fox killed the one that attacked us but...things are only going to get worse the closer we get to finding this weapon. It scares me to actually see anyone that powerful out there...if it weren't for Fox...we'd all be dead. For a second out there I actually thought that I was going to die...it made me think a lot about things that I would miss if I were to die..."

"We call that a near death experience..." Roxy explained, "People do that all the time."

"That's not the problem...I only really thought of one thing..." Silver said sitting up and looking over to her, "...you. Is that wrong? That I couldn't think of anyone or anything else? Not one single other thing seemed important anymore..."

After he said this Roxy turned toward him with misty eyes, he started to say something but was cut off as she wrapped her arms around him. For a moment he didn't know what to think...or what had caused this sudden rush of emotions. He simply sat there and held her until she pulled herself away from him, but as soon as she did this she pulled him back toward her pressing her lips to his. As it tended to when she did this, it surprised him but as her embrace on him held his eyes slowly fell shut. He pulled her closer to him deepening the kiss as a strange feeling washed through him, it felt as if her kiss had set his entire being on fire. It was during this moment that everything he'd said began to make perfect sense...it no longer confused him, hell, he heard Fox talk about it all the time, he was actually a bit disappointed in himself that he hadn't figured it out any sooner. As the two fell back with the pink rabbit's weight pinning the silver fox to his bed he broke away from her, and began to examine the delicate features of her face, brushing one of her long ears away from her eye...

"Roxy...I love you."

Roxy lowered herself down beside him laying her head against his shoulder, she didn't really say anything...she simply pulled one of his arms across her shoulders and closed her eyes, but it was as Silver closed his own eyes that he heard her voice murmur back to him...

"I love you too..."

* * *

**-000-**

When he first woke up Silver could only see darkness...he nearly panicked thinking he'd gone blind or something but, instantly calmed himself when he realized that it was simply one of Roxy's ears that had fallen across his eyes. He managed to find his way out of the sleeping Lapin's grip, his head caused him masses of pain, there was a near deafening ringing in his ears. His paws grasped at the sides of his skull in what felt like an attempt to keep his head from splitting. He slowly made his way into the small bathroom that was in his hospital room, he instantly went to the sink to splash some cold water on his face. His arms seemed to be the only thing holding him up over the sink basin, his vision blurred in and out of focus with each beat of pain that surged through his skull. It was as he rubbed the ice cold water over his eyes that he first heard it...

_Sssilver..._

The voice was almost nothing but complete ambiance, as if the air itself were whispering to him, he looked for whatever had caused it but the room was bare...spare for the shower curtain that was slightly moving from some sort of wind, most likely the building's A.C. He began to ignore the sound but then...

_ Sssilver..._

It was louder this time and he could have sworn he felt some sort of air, maybe even breath graze the back of his neck causing him to quickly pivot on his heels...

"Who's there?!" He nearly shouted, there was nothing there.

_Sssilver..._

_ Sssilver..._

_ Sssilver..._

This time the voice seemed to skip about the room, first coming from right beside him, then the shower, then to his other side, becoming a bit more clear the more he heard it. There was a knock on the door, thank god someone was still there...

"Silver are you okay in there...I heard you yell a second ago." Roxy's voice came from the other side of the door.

Silver couldn't tell her that he was hearing voices, "N--no Roxy I'm fine...just...stubbed my toe."

_Sssilver..._

_ Kill her..._

_ Kill them..._

_ Ssssilver..._

"Shut up..." He growled wrapping his paws over his ears only to find that the voices were just as clear, "Shut up...Shut up...SHUT UP!! GET THE FUCK OUTTA' MY HEAD!!" His cries grew into screams as the voices continued to torment his mind.

From the other side of the door Roxy could hear Silver screaming as someone, over and over to "shut up" and "get out of his head"...she tried her hardest to open the door to the bathroom but found it was locked from the inside. Suddenly there was a loud thud, almost like someone slamming something into the tiled walls of the bathroom with a powerful force. The sound came again, followed by the sound of fractured tiles falling to the floor, and again, again, and finally there was one last powerful thud before she heard what sounded like a body collapsing to the floor. Roxy rushed to the emergency button at the side of Silver's bed to call the nurses then rushed back to the door throwing all of her weight and muscle into it; to her joy it had been enough as the frame of the door gave way as the locked knob was forced to open against it's own lock. She quickly made her way to the fallen vulpine's side, he had collapsed to the floor with good reason, there was a massive gash on his head that was bleeding rather badly, there was also blood trickling from the end of his nose. As she looked around she noticed what had caused the loud banging sounds she'd heard; there was a bare spot in the building's reinforced wall were the tiles that covered the bathroom wall had been cracked and impacted by an incredible force, there was more blood spattered against the wall that washed into the fissures and crags in the tiles. Thankfully the nurses were prompt in getting to the room where they could help the fallen vulpine...

* * *

**-Undisclosed Location-**

A familiar looking doctor in a white coat rushes into Syler's office...

"SYLER!!" She yells mainly out of excitement.

"What is it?"

"It's 13...his primary programming just went online."

Syler's seemed to be able to do no more than stare at the hideously evils smile his reflection wore in the window before him...

"Good...now he belongs to me. Computer archive; August 22nd 3231...8:25am...Prototype Silver Fox unit Number-13 online..."

* * *

**AN: Sorry this took so long and came up so much shorter than I had originally planned all...but the Writer's Block Fairy won't leave me the Fk alone. I'll still see how often I can get these chapters out there. I've got this Fic pegged down to about 50 or more chapters so far...may be longer. Who knows?? Anyhow, thanks for putting up with my crap so far. R&R and I'll c'yall next time... **

_ I was the footsteps in the darkness until I fell down and knocked over the trash can- SkullFox_


	38. Chapter XXXVII

**-Chapter XXXVII-**

-3 days later-

Silver groaned in pain as his eyes slowly opened, his blurred vision could make out nothing in the small room; there were several blurred forms looking over him, he could tell by their various colors that they were his friends that most likely had a number of questions regarding his condition. As he looked on through the blur of his vision one of the figures moved, it was clearly Creed as Silver heard the vulpine's voice...

"What's the news doc?" He asked.

An almost entirely white blur was now standing where the blur of Creed's form stood, "Well...he's got a grade 2 concussion, a fractured skull, and..." The doctor paused, "Well I don't really know how to explain it. Look at the x-ray we got from his cat scan."

"The hell is that dark spot?" Fox asked.

"Sir...I have been a Neurologist for over 20 years and I can tell you that I have never seen anything like this. At first glance I thought it was a tumor but, the closer I looked at it I realized that whatever it is...I can assure you it is not brain matter of any kind. I am going to refer this case to a specialist on unexplained medical anomalies and see what she can come up with..."

Suddenly Roxy's voice called to Creed, "Hey Creed, he's waking up."

His vision was still blurry but at the least he could make out most of their faces, "Hey. How you feeln' Silver?"

Their voices almost sounded like distant echoes, "Ungh...Head hurts."

There was a chuckle or two in the room, "Yeah no shit..." Creed's voice responded, "You've got a fractured skull of course it hurts."

"What are they gonna do with me now?" Silver asked.

"They're brining a specialist in here to run some tests on you in a few days...after that who knows?" Creed answered.

Silver felt Roxy's paw on his shoulder, "You'll be fine after a little while. The lady they sent for is supposed to be the best at these types of problems."

After a bit of time the other's were forced to leave the room while the doctors took Silver to run more tests on him, the poor fox didn't mind however, turns out that his blurred vision was caused by a very powerful painkiller that they were keeping him on. For the most part he couldn't feel a thing but, then again it didn't stop the voices, it only dulled them down to a slight but, nearly inaudible whisper in the back of his mind. He'd have given anything to make them go away but, they were still there slowly threatening to drive him to the brink of madness. Soon enough he was back in his room alone, the only thing that he didn't want at the time...he was afraid of them, the voices, the things they told him to do, and the strange urge that he had to go through with their demands. He lay there for hours trying his hardest to flush them out of his mind...but, whatever he tried failed and only caused the voices to come back with increased magnitude...

_Kill them..._

"Nnnno..." He mumbled back weakly.

_Fine..._

_the staff..._

"Staff...why?"

_Do it..._

_The staff..._

"Go away..." He weakly demanded.

_The staff..._

_We'll leave..._

"S—staff..."

* * *

**-000-**

Krystal had just brought back word of what had happened with Silver to Fox who was able to stand but, by medical terms not well enough to leave the complex. He was happy enough to be able to walk again, but at times had trouble with his balance. The others had decided to let him sleep while they checked in with Silver, needless to say now Fox was worried now that he heard the news with his own ears...

"Since you're the team's leader the doctor said that he'll be up here with the advanced scan of Silver's brain when it's all done." Krystal said as Fox sat on the edge of his bed.

"Good...some of the stuff Roxy said about the incident doesn't make any sense. Why would he be hearing voices in his head?"

A few moments later the door opened to reveal a small bodied female wolf in a white lab coat, "Mister Scar?"

"That's me..." Fox answered.

"I have the results of the full scan of Mister Silver's brain...and we've discovered, without the specialist's help what that spot in his cat scan was..."

"And?" Krystal asked.

The doctor handed Fox a copy of the new scan, "That small spot we were seeing in completely composed of advanced positronics. It's no bigger than a few centimeters short of an inch in diameter...of course how it got there is a question in itself but, something like that in the position that it is in could be used to control the poor animal's mind or in a lesser rare case even kill him."

"Well then how do we get it out?" Fox asked.

"Out?!" The doctor asked surprised, "Sir with all due respect I don't think you understand the poor man's situation. That thing in there is a part of his brain, you take it out, as close to his cerebellum as it is, and you run the risk of doing some serious damage. Not to mention whatever negative effects just taking it out would have, which I could assure you would not be pleasant. You see that thing is directly connected to the portion of his brain that controls most of his thought processes...do too much damage to that section of that hemisphere of the brain and your friend is as good as a vegetable."

"Then what? Just leave him the way he is?"

The she wolf sighed, "No...We've sent the information to Beltino and Slippy Toad both to see what they can make of the scans. If anyone can figures it out it's those two."

As the doctor said this the hospital's PA system kicked on, "Warning to all staff, there is a code White in the building...Room 1781-B."

Krystal thought for a moment, "Wait a minute that's Silver's room. What's a code White?"

"Critical patient leaving the premises...but that wouldn't make any sense. He had enough anesthetics in his system to sedate a small Luxonian he shouldn't be able to walk at all." She said rushing over to a small intercom located by Fox's bed, "Gail where was he headed?"

The intercom came back with an unfamiliar voice, "He looked like he was headed for the Star Port. He hurt a lot of guards on his way...they watched him jump from the sixth story window."

Fox quickly turned toward Krystal, "Listen get Creed and the others and get to the Port as fast as you can. I don't like where this is headed."

"What about you? You can't travel even to the port in your condition." Krystal asked.

"Don't worry about it...I'll see what I can do from here."

With a quick kiss Krystal rushed out the door, in that time Fox told the doctor that was still in the room to bring him his communicator that was confiscated when he was turned in to the hospital. It took no time at all for a guard to rush Fox's things to his room, he then asked to the two to leave the room and fixed the device to his right wrist...

"Silver?" He said into the device after turning it on, "Silver...I know you can hear me say something."

"Fox..." Silver's voice came back, "...I'm sorry."

"Listen Silver, I don't know what's going on with you...but, you don't have to run off like this...we can help you."

"No..." Silver's voice came back, "You can't...nobody can. Just please stay out of my way..."

Fox couldn't help but to notice the worry in the young vulpine's voice, "Fine. I'll call them all off...you just be careful, I hope you know what the fuck you're doing kid."

* * *

**-000-**

Before the other's got too far Fox called them back, they were needless to say confused at their leader's sudden change in directives...but, regardless to their own thoughts they all returned to the hospital. The group had nothing to say to Fox...that is accept for Roxy, but Fox took it onto himself to ignore her. His decision to call off the search seemed to have also angered Krystal at him somewhat, it was his decision however and as leader nobody seemed to speak out against it. It was more than a few hours later that Fox found himself sitting alone looking out the window of his hospital room, that Krystal approached him from behind resting her paws on his shoulders...

"He knows what he's doing Krystal...Omni may be influencing him but, they aren't controlling him."

Krystal sighed as she began to massage his shoulders, "You know that he took the staff?"

"Yeah..." Fox replied, "...but, he left the map didn't he?"

Krystal sighed again resting her head on his shoulder while wrapping her arms around his neck, "I really hope you're right...I don't want to see the little guy get hurt...he's one of us you know? One of society's little outcasts."

Fox smiled, "Not totally outcast...If that were true I never would have bothered putting a tracker on him."

Krystal backed off for a moment, "You what?"

"When I first found him he passed out on this ship...I didn't know whether or not to trust the kid but, with all the Omni stuff covering him I thought it'd be a good idea to keep tabs up on him so. While I checked him over I stamped him with a bug. It's under the skin on his forearm."

Krystal grinned at the fox's slyness, "You got one of those things on me somewhere too?"

"Mmm...Maybe." Fox replied with a smirk.

Krystal suddenly stepped over his legs sitting on his lap with her arms still around his neck making certain her muzzle was only a few inches from his, "And exactly where would this tracking device be?" She asked in a rather teasing voice.

Fox smiled at her playful action, "Sorry but...with all those clothes on you'd never see it." He teased back.

Krystal planted a fast kiss on his lips, "Well maybe I should do something about that..." She said unbuttoning the first few buttons of her shirt.

Whatever game they were playing at Krystal had won as Fox was completely speechless and unable to react as he could see quite a bit of the black lace bra she was wearing. Or was she playing with him? Because she wasn't moving. As she stayed in her seat the two became lost in each other's eyes, neither one moving or even blinking. The distance between them slowly closed until their lips met; it started out like any other kiss but, became slightly heightened as Krystal pushed herself against Fox's chest which caused him to reach his paws to her sides pulling her that much closer. The wounds about his chest and body burned like fire but, at the moment they were nothing compared to the fire that he felt for the blue vixen that was sitting on top of him. As the heat of their kiss began to escalate their ears zeroed in on something as someone came through the door...

"Oh! Ssshhhit...Um...I'll come back..." Falco said wide eyed as he turned to walk back out.

Fox and Krystal broke their hold on one another smiling, "Don't bother...come on in Falco." Fox said as Krystal fixed her shirt and climbed off of him.

As he walked in Krystal kissed Fox's cheek and headed out of the room, "Good to see you two aren't trying to kill each other..."

Krystal smiled and stopped for a moment to look over her shoulder with a wink at Fox, "Maybe later..." She said heading out of the room.

Falco walked in and stood by the window; he was wearing a black leather jacket, and a pair of faded blue jeans, "I cleared your ship's docking statement...as far as anyone knows that ship was never here. I guess you'll have to leave pretty soon huh?"

"Yeah...Clear or not we can't risk staying in a city for too long."

Falco paused for a moment, "You hear the news?"

"What news?" Fox asked.

"Lucy is coming to live with me and Katt for a while...Peppy...he died a few days ago. Someone slipped into his hospital room at night...killed him in his sleep."

"Sydney said this would happen...that if it wasn't him doing the job it'd be someone else." Fox said, "Do they know who did it?"

"Nope but, that's not the best part..." Falco said pulling out a small poster and handing it to Fox, "Seems they found a fallout man to take the heat."

"Scar..." Fox read the poster, "...wanted dead or alive for the murder of General Peppy L. Hare, Reward 2.5million credits...Hum...sounds like a fair price. Terrible photo though...what the hell, a four year old draw this?"

"You don't seem to be worried." Falco responded to the fox's smug remark.

"S'okay...I'm used to Omni blaming their shit on at least one of us."

"Omni?" Falco said with a raised eyebrow.

Fox turned his chair to face the inside of the room, "Sit down man...This is one hell of a long story..." As he said this the blue avian sat on the bed, "Well you know how I left all that time ago to find Krystal?"

"Yeah...you were hooked then too." Falco smirked,

"Tip of the iceberg man..."

* * *

**-000-**

Hours passed by as Fox covered every possible aspect of what had happened to him and the others so far; from Fox's accident when the staff was first stolen, to the incident at hand when they were all attacked by Krystal's old friend Arlex. Falco didn't know what to think, he knew Fox too well to think for even a second that any of this was a lie. For quite some time Falco simply sat there thinking over all the things that had happened over the last month or so...it all fit in with Fox's story. Peppy's death, the weapon shipments, the indefinite fact that Falco had been to Fox's funeral on Corneria, but something still clung to his mind...

"So Krystal's staff is some sort of super weapon? And you are really one of her people in the first place because your mom is?" He asked to make sure he hadn't misheard anything.

"Pretty much..." Fox replied, "Omni's been pull'n the strings since before we even met Krystal, back when dad was still alive."

"Wow and back then Omni was just a small business...now they're the largest Corporation in the galaxy. You think they may have someone bigger behind them?" Falco said.

"Don't care...but, Omni took my mom from me for over 20 years...if it takes every last breath in my body, they're gonna wish they never heard the name McCloud."

Falco smiled at the sentiment, "Well...Wolf's been around for a while, said he was coming up here to see you. So I'd better go..."

Fox laughed a bit, "You two still having trouble? Come on...if I can get along with him so can you."

Falco headed for the door, "Yeah but, you know me...I hold a grudge. There is something that Katt wants from you though..."

"And what's that?"

"I'm gonna be a father soon..." Falco said, "We'd like it if you'd be the kid's godfather."

Fox smiled at the thought, Falco had changed a lot from the loud mouthed smart ass that he'd known, "No problem...I'd be honored."

"Good...now I'mma get the fuck outta here before that damned wolf shows up..."

Fox was happy to be alone for a short while, it gave him time to think about things, mainly Silver and what the poor vulpine was doing at the moment. What was worse was, now he needed to find out how to get the staff back from Syler...sure in it's current state it was still not at full power but, Fox wasn't in a big hurry to see how much the piece of the blade had increased it's power...especially not with him on the receiving end. Fox was beginning to feel the effects of moving around and found his way back to his bed; he was happy to see Krystal walk through the door with some normal food from the hospital's cafeteria. He was happy to see her after that little embarrassing moment with Falco, he was even happier to see her when she placed a large sandwich in his paws and sat a hot cup of coffee on the small night stand near his bed...

"I love you..." He said bluntly after taking a bite out of the sandwich.

She knew how horrible hospital food could get but, still chuckled a bit at his statement before kissing him on the cheek, "Shut up and eat."

In no time at all the food was gone and Fox had started on the cup of coffee, "Hey Krystal...what was that little display earlier all about? You gett'n all friendly all of a sudden...not that I'm complaining."

Krystal thought for a moment, "Well it started out just screwing with you... Besides there used to be a time when you used to enjoy that kind of attention, whether I was playing with you or not." She said walking over and sitting on the side of his bed.

Fox sat down his cup and reached over pulling her over on top of him so that their muzzles were next to each other, "You know you did offer to try and kill me earlier..." He said with a smile, even though her weight was killing his ribs.

"The offer still stands..." She replied looking into his eyes dreamily.

Fox reached out engaging her in a rather lengthy kiss, "Promise?" He asked after the two broke away from each other.

"AHEM!!" A familiar voice called from the door of the room calling their attention, "If this is a bad time we can come back." Wolf said pointing his thumb over his shoulder.

Fox had never imagined that he'd be happy to see Wolf; the lupine was dressed in a black muscle shirt and a pair of loose fitting blue jeans...Kala stood to his right dressed in a white tee shirt and a similar pair of pants though hers were much tighter...

Krystal sighed and rolled off of the bed, "It's nice to see you two...Kala, I'm sorry about the whole head thing with the toolbox..."

"Don't worry about it Fox...though I would like to have a word with that rabbit friend of yours." The white she wolf said as the two walked over to his bed.

"So I see you got banged up pretty bad pup."

Krystal let the two have the two chairs near the window and sat on the bed next to Fox, "It's nice to see that you two are getting along again." Wolf noted, "Have you got anything new on the whole problem with Omni?"

It was as Fox began to explain things out that someone walked into the room, "Hey Fox I...Uh oh..."

As Shera walked into the room Wolf and Kala's eyes were instantly fixed on her, "SHERA!!" Kala yelled rushing over hugging the young vixen.

"Hey mom..."

Fox's eyes widened as he heard this, "Wait a second...mom? Wolf is this your kid?"

As Wolf nodded to Fox the vulpine took noticed that, Shera's fur was very close to the color of Wolf's while her slightly long hair was the same white color as Kala's pure white fur. As they all sat by there was another voice as Jared stepped in the doorway with several bags in his hands...

"Hey Shera you really could've helped with..." The timber wolf froze and dropped this things as his gaze was met by a fierce snarl from Wolf, "...Fuck me..." Jared said in a low voice.

"YOU!!" Wolf screamed dashing toward the door.

"FUCK!!" Jared shouted as he dashed down the hall.

Jared was gone with Wolf hot on his tail in a matter of seconds, while Kala simply sighed shaking her head with disappointment. Fox and Krystal looked to one another, they had no clue what was going on but, Fox admitted that he found the whole thing kind of comical. He just hoped that soon someone would explain what this was all about...

* * *

**-Undisclosed Location-**

Syler stands in the middle of a large lab where his assistant Elyna works at a small computer terminal, Silver sits unconscious in a large white chair with his arms and legs strapped down...

"Well?" Syler demanded slapping the end of the small golden staff against his palm.

"It doesn't make any sense sir..." The doctor said looking away from the computer screen, "All of your mental probes are coming up empty and somehow he's managing to hold back all the information stored in his on board computer."

"Are you telling me that he is somehow going against his own programming?" Syler asked hooking the staff to his belt.

"In so many words...yes." Elyna said, "Remember. This is why I was against using a live subject for the process...mixing computer technology with something as complex as the brain could have some undesired effects. He dose have his original programing but, it seems he's developed the ability to choose not to obey them."

Syler began to walk out of the room, "Well then...if we can't find out what we need from him. Then he has no use to me. Shut him down and toss him in the pit with the other failures."

"Shut him down? Sir, he is not a computer..."

Syler shrugged his shoulders, "Then kill him...whatever you need to do." He said walking out of the room.

* * *

**AN: Well...chapter 37...sorry for the lack of action or anything like that...but, the next few chapters will be a bit more interesting. Thanks for reading R&R and I'll C'ya all next update...**

_On a further note thanks for the support to any and all readers of this story...especially the reviewers who have helped a lot..._

_Thank you all _

The footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox


	39. Chapter XXXVIII

**AN:This chapter was more of a filler...it explains some things but mainly is meant to set up for chapter 39. Chapter 40 will start to set up for the ending of the fic...even in that situation however there are still over 11 chapters left, I don't think I'm gonna be able to end this at just 50 like I'd hoped. We'll see...**

Enjoy and R&R...

PS: Thanks for reading...SkullFox

**-Chapter XXXVIII-**

Silver woke to the realization that the voices no longer bothered him, but he could only see darkness. He tried to look around but there was nothing. He could feel a slight breeze however...there was no air in space, then where the hell was he? He stumbled around about the darkness following the direction he felt the air coming from. He couldn't see what it was he was walking in but, there was something covering the floor of this place, some of it was squishy like a thick liquid, but, other parts were solid which he often tripped over...the smell in this place made him feel like throwing up, such a foul oder that it gave him a terrible migraine. He tripped once again and found that his paws came in contact with something; it was furry, had ears, and part of a neck. He instantly threw what he'd deduced could only have been a severed head, everything he'd tripped over, that terribly disgusting oder, they were corpses. He felt around again, everything he touched, all bodies or parts thereof. It was as he walked around that a spot light hit him in the face blinding him for a moment...

"Silver?" A voice called out.

It was oddly familiar like he'd heard it somewhere before...

"Silver follow me..."

He didn't know why he thought he could trust this person but they were trying to help him for as far as he knew...and he was a bit desperate to get out of this place. He followed the small column of light trying his hardest to not trip any more as he feared that he would loose his mysterious guide, their trek was long and tiring but, Silver kept to his footing following far behind the stranger. It seemed to take forever before Silver saw a light up ahead much brighter than the one in the stranger's paws forcing him to cover his eyes as best he could. He was more than relieved when he finally reached the light of day again; the land that spread out before him however was barren covered in nothing more than red sand and large rocks. He looked about to find his helper only to find a single silver furred vixen standing there in a white lab coat, her eyes were a dark green, she carried a rather petite frame and had short hair, a small pair of square framed glasses sat across her muzzle...

"Hello Silver...It's good to finally be able to see you again."

Silver looked at the vixen with confusion...

"What's the matter?" She chuckled, "Can't even remember your own mother?"

* * *

**-000-**

Falco and Katt were at the hospital when they finally decided to release Fox...though he wasn't giving the doctors much of a choice as he was constantly trying to leave anyhow, he was worried about Silver. The two followed the group, Vixy had stayed with Falco and Katt for most of the time they were all on Kew...she had not seen Falco in about as long as she'd not seen Fox...and she was more than happy to meet Katt. She'd also taken the time they had on Kew to get to know Creed whom she found to be an interesting character, and his sister Lia who she absolutely loved...

"Say..." Fox said as they all met in the hospital parking lot, "Anyone seen Jared...I wanted to find out what the hell was going on but, Wolf chased him out of the building and he bolted...that was earlier this morning...then Kala and Shera ran off to find them before they ever explained anything."

"Ah..." Falco said, "I'm sure they're all fine."

* * *

**-Somewhere else in the city-**

Jared barreled down an alleyway trying his hardest to get away from the angered wolf that was only so far behind him, unfortunately as he rushed into the alley he did not notice that the alleyway was blocked off by a large portion of chain link fencing. The sweat poured from his face as he panted heavily trying hi s hardest to catch his breath, he didn't have what it would take to climb, and he couldn't go back the other way. Wolf had chased Jared all over the city, through the shops, over several buildings, through the hospital twice, down main street, through a local inn, and finally to this alley. It was a small crevice between two large buildings, a blue dumpster sat nearby producing a terrible smell. As Wolf slid around the corner he noticed that Jared, had stopped running. The run down timber wolf stood there with his arms raised into a fighting position...

"So that's how it's gonna be huh?" Wolf said wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"It's only clear to me that you don't care whether or not Shera and I love each other...you have no intention of stopping until she leaves me..." Jared said between his breaths, "...but you don't understand how much I love your daughter. If you're going to take her from me then you're gonna have to kill me. Because I refuse to go back to living without her."

"Then why the sudden change of heart?" Wolf asked referring to his willingness to fight instead of run.

"I hate fighting...Shera made me promise not to do it anymore..." Jared said dropping his guard, "And that's why I'm not going to...If you're gonna kill me kill me...you'll won't be doing anything besides hurting Shera."

Wolf finally made it to Jared snatching him up by the collar of his shirt, Jared closed his eyes as Wolf drew back his razor sharp claws. However instead of cuts there was a tooth rattling force driven into Jared's jaw sending him to the ground in a state of pain...

"GOD DAMN IT!!" Wolf screamed at the top of his lungs, "It had to fucking be you didn't it?! I trusted you, took you in, and how the fuck did you repay me?"

"This had nothing to do with you Wolf..." Jared said staggering as he stood back up, "...even you should know that we have no control over who we love. You should know that better than anyone. Or was all that crap you told me about love all just lies too?"

Wolf sighed, "It's not the fact that you two care about each other...If you two'd have just said something then none of this would have happened...but, you ran off with my little girl. You took her from me like a common thief."

Jared spit out a small lump of blood, "Wolf I..."

As Wolf walked back toward the hospital Jared didn't have the heart to tell him the truth, that it was really Shera's idea to run away the way they had. It was better off just leaving well enough alone...Wolf hated Jared, but, knew that there was nothing he could do about it unless he wanted to hurt the most important person in the world to him...his own daughter. As he trudged down the street's sidewalk Shera and Kala stopped him...

"Where is Jared?" Shera asked quickly.

"In the alley..." Wolf answered in a depressed tone, "Come on Kala."

"Wait Wolf where are we going?"

"Back to the ship...I need a drink."

* * *

**-000-**

Silver couldn't believe what he was hearing...if he really had a mother then why couldn't he remember her? He was certain that any kind of parent mother or father he'd at the very least remember who they were or what they looked like. This vixen looked familiar from somewhere but, he couldn't really place her at all, it was like his mind was telling him to remember something that he never really knew. Silver took a step back as what she'd said had sunk in...

"If that's true then why can't I remember you?"

The silver furred vixen looked to the ground, "I'm sorry Silver...but, there were certain situations with your birth...I did some things that I'm not exactly proud of. Your memory is still most likely all messed up from the time you spent in Cold Stasis. My sister and me are the only reason you are even standing there right now."

Silver's expression was unsure, his head told him to be weary of this person but, something told him he could trust her, "W-what is you name?" He asked.

"It's Camellia...or Camile for short. Listen, we have to get out of here before Syler sends in the scouts, he has this place searched every night." Camile said reaching a paw out to the confused vulpine, "I promise to tell you everything that I know as soon as we're somewhere safe."

He still didn't know why but he trusted her, and reached out taking her paw, Camile quickly pulled him forward and led him across the landscape where there was a small ship. The whole thing happened so fast that before Silver knew it they were out of the planet's atmosphere heading for Kew as that was the last place that he knew of Fox and the other's being. The recent events were all rushing through his head, mainly about the dark place where he'd woken up. He had seen their faces when the flashlight was shone into that massive grave site...Silver fur, blue eyes, every single one of them, looked like him. Silver found the small ship to be much more confined than the Dark Star, the kitchen area he sat in was much smaller as well, there was much less space than on the Dark Star, only enough space for two or three, Camile brought two small plates to the table passing one to Silver...

"I guess you have a lot of questions..." She said.

"What am I?" Silver replied.

"And that would be the hardest and easiest to answer." Camile said with a sigh, "The project started out when we first discovered the Cerinians...that is Syler. We noticed that his people had a much greater longevity than ours...that being they lived a lot longer than your average fox. I was the first to suggest looking into their genetic structure for what made them live so long. If I were to find out what kept their bodies so young and healthy there was a great chance that I could have isolated that gene to help people, cure diseases and debilitations that we've never dreamed of curing...but, then Syler got a hold of my research. By then I had already isolated what we called the 'Blue Strain', the Cerinian gene...but, for some reason it wouldn't take with any other subject that I tried it on...it even killed one of them. That was when our higher ups decided that we should see if genetic material between the two races were even compatible. I volunteered to be artificially inseminated, with my own genetic material along with Syler's. And eight months later you were born. It was odd, though you were born over a month premature you were bigger and more healthy than other kit's born to term. They took you from me a bit over a year after you were born, the only way I was allowed to see you after that was in secret. Then Syler started with his sick little twist on what I was trying to accomplish; he realized that you weren't only born healthy, and with his longevity but, your genes seemed to perfectly balance each other, you were physically stronger than any other kit or fox your size. Syler wanted nothing to do with healing people, he wanted power, and he even went as far as using his own son to get it. It was my sister Elyna that filled me in on everything, she managed to get herself into the graces of the Omni president, she works for L.I.B (Lylat Intelligence Bureau). She's been getting me information on what has been happening with the Silver Fox project for over 8 years...unfortunately even as close as she was to the project they gave her minimal information, deactivating some of the programming they put in your head was the best she could do before setting this all up for us..."

Silver had trouble with some of the things she said but over all he understood, "Syler...he is...my father?"

Camile's eyes fell to the table, "Yes..."

"Why can't I remember anything?" Silver asked.

"Your memories will eventually come back to you...though I doubt you will want them once you have them back."

Silver looked to his supposed mother, "But...if you really are who you say. Then I want to remember...you at the very least. Is there a way to prove that what you say is true?"

"Yes...it's a simple test that they can preform at any clinic or hospital." Camile replied, "Why? Is that what you want?"

"As long as it's proof then yes...I have to know."

* * *

**-000-**

Falco and Katt had both come aboard the Dark Star as Fox and his crew boarded the craft themselves. Fox showed the two around the new ship, the whole time hearing remark after remark from the blue avian that he should have ditched the Great Fox years ago. After some time they all found themselves sitting in the ship's kitchen having a nice hot meal together like old times, Fox had really missed these two ever since he had disbanded the team years ago...

"So when you plan on leaving?" Falco asked near the mid point of the meal.

"Tomorrow...we've got to go find Silver...but, Creed, Lia, Jared, and Shera are still out in town."

Vixy looked to the blue avian, "What about you Falco? You coming with us?"

"Not a chance..." The bird said draping a feathered arm across Katt's shoulders, "It took me way too long to find out where I belong. I'm staying right here."

Fox smiled, "Happy to hear it. Just don't fuck it up like you usually do."

The group had a laugh as everyone knew it to be true...he usually did fuck things up and make 'em worse. The group continued their conversation while eating, taking their time with everything as they weren't sure when they'd see each other again. After they were done Krystal and Fox carried the dishes into the kitchen. The two then brought everyone a drink so that they could continue talking, after several minutes of friendly talk Roxy rushed into the room from the bridge where she'd been sitting and keeping an eye out for any sort of transmissions...

"Fox! We just got a transmission...It's from Silver."


	40. Chapter XXXIX

**-Chapter XXXIX-**

Fox was a bit taken by everything he'd heard as Silver and Camile explained everything they knew. Fox was not happy to hear that the Cornerian military was the first to support and fund this little project...as he sat there listening his expression became more and more serious. He had no idea what Silver had been through from the beginning, his life was a mess, and worse he only recently discovered that he himself, was nothing but a tool for his own father's twisted obsession with power. By the time Fox had heard everything he simply sat there filtering everything through his mind, he felt sorry for the poor young fox...

"That...is pretty fucked up." He finally said as Camile finished her side of the story.

"This project was started with only the best intentions in mind Mister McCloud..." She replied defensively.

Fox scoffed, "The universes greatest horrors were made with the best of intentions Camile...Look what the best intentions did to the humans. The were one of the most prosperous races in this galaxy...now they struggle to survive past what they did to their own home world."

"You cannot compare what I was trying to accomplish to those warmongers." Camile declared defensively.

"Really? You remember the Hex virus? Wasn't that made with the...best of intentions?" Fox asked, "They were only trying to cure that Aids virus that was killing them...didn't really work out so well did it. They just made it stronger and faster, and airborne. A cure...if something with that kind of hopeful intentions can go wrong anything can. Morgan's Law...If it can go wrong in any way it will, and at the worst possible moment..."

"Morgan's Law is a philosophy not a fact. Leave it to humans to think up such an unscientific explanation."

Fox sighed, "What makes you think we're any different that the humans were? They had the same problems with crime and terrorism we have, they fight for survival just like we do, and most of all they somehow manage to survive despite the fact that they themselves almost destroyed their entire race. We're more like the humans that anyone on the council is willing to admit...but, they deserve our help...my father thought so and so do I. So don't tell me about good intentions, because it's always the best intentions that fuck us over the most."

"Fox! Stop it!" Krystal shouted, "You're arguing about nothing!"

"Sorry...this whole situation just pisses me off." Fox apologized, "Nobody should ever be allowed to be used like that."

Camile looked away from the screen, "It's fine I understand what you mean...and I'm happy that Silver could find such a friend...I had feared that Syler had turned him into some kind of puppet."

"Trust me..." Fox said shaking his head, "He's too strong willed for that."

"Listen...I don't know anything about that spear that Syler took from Silver...but, I can assume that it's nothing good for any of us."

Fox scoffed a bit, "Not bad at all...only the most destructive weapon in creation." Camile looked confused, "Everything'll be explained when the two of you get here...we'll be in orbit around Kew."

"Good...we should be there in a few hours."

"Right...we'll see you then." Fox said cutting the transmission.

The rest of the time the team seemed to spend in the ship's kitchen, Krystal had stated at some point that she was hungry and apparently the feeling was contagious, as soon everyone was there with her. Fox kept sorting through his mind about what he'd heard, it still festered inside of him that anyone that would call themselves a mother or a father would do something like that to their child...he knew that for the most part it wasn't Camile's fault, she was only trying to make everyone's lives easier. It was that bastard Syler that he couldn't stand and for some reason his instant reaction was to take it all out on Camile...he felt sorry for what he'd said and had every intention of apologizing as soon as they met face to face. It wasn't long before MIA's voice came form the PA system warning the team of an approaching craft, which was given the go ahead to dock with the Dark Star. Oddly enough the entire team met Silver and his supposed mother in the docking bay. Roxy rushed out to bug Silver as soon as she saw him, Silver was more than happy to return the gesture. For a small amount of time while Syler was interrogating him he'd convinced himself he'd never see any of his friends again...especially Roxy...

The silver furred vixen that stood by Silver smiled, "You must be Roxy..." She said looking to the pink bunny, "Silver hasn't stopped talking about you since we ended that transmission."

As Roxy broke away from Silver her face began to glow as she realized everyone was smiling at the two of them...Silver wasn't too sure what to think however, he'd never seen this emotion before, but, now was not the time to be asking questions, it was the time for answers. The group, strangely, found themselves back in the kitchen where it would be easier for everyone to relax while Camile explained to everyone in detail what the Silver Fox project really was all about, and what Syler had done to pervert what she was working for...skipping of course the small parts she'd already explained to them over the transmission. Krystal was a bit surprised, she'd never heard of a Cerinian that would go so far for power...not so far as to ruin the life of their own offspring, to use a child as a tool...

"So Syler really is mad." Krystal pointed out.

Camile looked to the blue vixen, "You know it was odd...he didn't start out that way. Just like everyone thinks that Andross was a horrible creature. True he did it in a terrible manner but, for the most part he was only trying to make Venom better for those that already lived there.."

"And tried wiping out billions in the process..." Fox added with a resentful tone toward the ape.

"Syler started acting funny about the time this strange fox started working for the company as an informant. I...I think his name was...umm...Strider. Or at least that was what everyone called him...I never really did like him. He was far too creepy...just being near him gave me chills."

Creed laughed a bit, "Won't have'ta worry about that anymore...Fox broke the poor fucker in two. Can't say he didn't deserve it though...tried to kill us all, succeeded in one case."

Fox draped an arm over Krystal's shoulders as he noticed her wiping her eyes at the mention of her brother, "He killed Krystal's brother."

"I..I'm sorry for your loss." Camile replied, "I know what it's like to loose family. My parent's were murdered when I was twelve...I guess that's what you come to expect when you grow up in the wrong neighborhood of Kew City."

Roxy at the time was sitting near Silver secretly holding his paw at their sides, "But now that Syler has the staff...what are we going to do? It's not like we can walk right into Omni central and take it back. You said it yourself Fox they own everything...The military, the council, even the senate. How do you expect to combat something like that?"

"Cut off the head and the body naturally dies." Fox replied.

"So go right after Syler and kill him?" Camile asked, "Only one problem with that. Kill him and the next highest member of the company gains ownership, that won't end anything."

"Then what would you suggest...hmm?" Fox asked.

"Corneria and Katina are at war...the two of them together would have a chance at fighting Omni's forces off...that was the whole reason that the company turned the two against each other. After the two weaken each other it'll be that much easier for a hostile takeover...and with that dead clone of Fox being sent to them, Corneria's military has lost reason to put up much of a fight...your false death has robbed the planet of what fighting spirit it had..."

Creed, Krystal, and Fox all exchanged glances for a moment, "That's brilliant. With you and me, we can prove that everything is a set up from Omni and get both the Cornerian and the Katinan Armadas on our side to wipe these fucks out once and for all." Fox said.

"Are you serious?" Camile asked, "You know how many of Omni's informants are influencing that war?"

"Nope...but, all I need is a list do you know who they are?"

"Of course I..." Camile froze as she got Fox's point.

As soon as everyone on Corneria heard what Omni had done with Fox and seen the living Fox with their own eyes, the entire populous would turn on everyone on that list of people from Omni sent to take control of the war and make certain that those people would pay. The entire plan was better than any of them could have hoped for...

"Camile...you wanna make up for everything? Then get me that list of names...cuz I'm about to shove an entire armada right up Syler's ass."

As Fox stood to leave the room MIA's voice came from the intercom...

"Warning! Hostile ship detected exiting hyperspace...dreadnought class battleship. Chances of survival if hit by ship's primary weaponry...0.0002percent. Precautionary retreat highly recommended. Ship identified as the Nemesis."

Fox barreled down the halls toward the ship's bridge, "MIA...set up our hyperdrive engines for an emergency exit of this quadrant of space! Search for the nearest uncharted planet and get there! We'll be a lot safer if they don't know the land we land on!"

As Fox leaped into his captain's seat he heard MIA's reply, "Destination set...Dan'jas star system, planet Kajaarr. Acquiring hyperspace clearance."

As Fox sat there pounding away at the keys to his laptop something forced the entire ship to shake violently sounding off several alarms on the ship, and causing the lights to go out replacing them with a red flashing light. After this happened the crew piled onto the bridge in a panic, Creed, Krystal, and Shera rushed out to different stations of the bridge going over the small systems while the others found secured seats. Whatever type of weapon had just hit the Dark Star she wasn't about to take another hit from it...

"MIA DAMAGE REPORT!" Fox yelled.

"Direct hit against the port side hull of the ship by, Cornerian Disruptor class pulse cannon. Shields at 10percent and dropping, electrical systems down in sectors E-12, C-4, A-14, D-5 to D-18...core cell drive offline, weapon systems heavily damaged, hull breach in sectors B-12, N-4, and I-5. Hyperdrive systems still intact..."

"GOOD KEEP THE HYPERDRIVE ONLINE AND REROUTE ALL OTHER POWER TO THE SHIP'S SHEILDS!! HOW MUCH LONGER TILL WE GAN GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!?" Fox yelled in a bit of a panic.

"Sheilds now at 62.35percent. Time remaining for clearance 3 minutes 21 seconds."

Another shot rocked the small ship causing Roxy, and Lia to scream almost in unison as they both fell from their seats. Another shot and they were all dead. After a moment or two a dead silence fell over the ship, the alarms had been knocked offline. As the crew seemed to sit there waiting for the massive ship to finish the job Krystal made her way to Fox's side taking a seat on his lap in a means to be held for that last moment...

"We're gonna die aren't we?" She asked wrapping her arms around him.

"Not a chance in hell..." Fox replied wrapping the blue vixen in his arms, "Everyone hold onto something, I'm sure the G-force reflux module is offline. MIA FUCK CLEARANCE JUST GET US THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!!" As they could feel the ship jolt forward Fox closed his eyes pressing his head against the side of Krystal's, "Everything's gonna be okay...I promise..."

As the massive battleship's main weapon fired there was a flash of light causing the smaller ship to vanish leaving a small streak of green light from the ship's hyperdrive engine's plasma burn off. The large beam of energy that would have torn the small ship asunder reached into the depths of space fading until it no longer existed. It didn't matter, Fox knew the risk of rushing off into hyperspace without proper clearance, it was all a chance of fate...without a clear path there was no telling where they'd end up.

* * *

**-000-**

There was nothing but darkness for Fox when he woke, he couldn't remember anything past the point when the hyperdrive engines went out. As his eyes settled there was a burning sensation in his right arm, blood drained form his forehead into his left eye forcing it shut. Electricity sparked all around him, and he could feel the heat of fire. His vision faded in and out as he slipped in and out of consciousness, his body felt cold despite the heat around him. Finally as he lay there he could see a blue blur of light, something shifted and was thrown away relieving a painful pressure he felt on his chest. He could only hear slight echoes but he knew the voices well enough...It was Krystal...

"...eed! Creed! Over here! Fox? Can you hear me? Fox...Fox..."

Once again everything returned to darkness...

* * *

**AN: Okay I am SO sorry for the short chapter...but, I have had one hell of a month...and have writer's block on top of that so. Please forgive the lateness of the update and don't be too angry if the next chapter takes a while. Thanks for understanding- SkullFox**


	41. Chapter XL

**Chapter XL**

After what seemed like an eternity of sleep Fox rose from his sleep, he was comfortably tucked into a familiar bed of red sheets and linens, as he sat up in bed he noticed a peculiar smell all about his fur...blueberries? He was very familiar with that smell, but, why did he smell like Krystal? He couldn't remember a thing. He could clearly hear the shower running but, for some reason didn't feel like getting up to check it out, he was comfortable, but for some reason he couldn't help but to feel that he was forgetting about something. Suddenly the bathroom doors slid open drawing the confused vulpine's attention...his jaw dropped at what he saw. The gorgeous blue vixen was standing in the doorway in her bare fur rubbing a dry towel about her freshly washed hair...she didn't seem to care at all that Fox might be awake and able to see her naked body which he couldn't help but to stare at with his jaw practically sitting on his lap. Without looking to the bed Krystal turned tossing the used towel back into the bathroom, she stood there for a moment stretching her back, the whole scene of course was having an indefinite effect on Fox which he was trying hi s hardest to hide. Krystal finally turned about and began to walk, very enticingly, toward the bed, smiling a bit as she noticed that Fox was awake. Fox's heart began to beat wildly ash the blue angel began to crawl across the bed until she was directly on top of him...

"Morning..." She smiled kissing his softly on the lips, she backed off however when she noticed that he wasn't returning the affection, "What's wrong? You suddenly afraid to kiss me?"

Fox settled his head and returned the kiss which made Krystal feel a bit better, "No...I guess it was all just one really fuck'n weird dream."

Krystal rolled to his side snuggling against him and using her paw to brush the fur on his forehead, "Another dream about that whole Omni thing? You've been having them for months...and every time you wake up you swear that they were real..."

"But it was real..."

Krystal chuckled, "Yeah it was...past tense. Four months ago. Do you even remember asking me to marry you?"

Fox gave her an uncertain look as she showed him the ring on her left ring finger...

"And what about last night?" Krystal asked sitting up and folding her arms over her bare breasts.

Fox shook his head, "With the way you're dressed right now I wish that I could."

Krystal grew a slight smile as she rolled back on top of him pulling at the blanket that he held to his body, "Well then maybe I can jog your memory."

Two hours later Fox lay there drenched in sweat with the exhausted vixen sleeping against his chest, wondering how it was he could have ever forgotten something like that. As he lay there taking in her sent he thought to himself..._This is perfect, right where I want to be...but, then why doesn't any of this feel right? _For hours he lay there trying his hardest to think of some thing that could possibly be missing but, he was happy, and had Krystal back, what could have possibly been missing for this sort of life he had everything he had ever wanted. The sleeping beauty next to him groaned a bit squeezing her arms around him a bit tighter, causing Fox to stifle a chuckle as he smiled. After a bit longer Krystal's eyes fluttered open and she looked up to Fox, who had completely decided to accept the situation...

"Feeling any better?" She asked with a smile.

"Yeah...you?" He asked back.

Krystal kissed the corner of his muzzle, "I always feel better waking up next to you."

"I had a thought Krys..." Fox said changing the subject, "We should go visit the others."

Krystal smiled giving him an odd look like what he'd said was a joke, "What others?" She asked.

"What do you mean what others?" Fox retaliated rolling out of the bed and standing up, "Creed, Lia, Roxy, Silver, Jared, Shera. Any of these names ringing a bell?"

"Fox. I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Do you even know who Voss is?"

"Fox. It's only been you and me...there is nobody else, that's the way you said it was supposed to be."

It was as Krystal said this that a seemingly lost memory flashed before Fox's eyes; it was all blurry but he could see it well. He was sitting in the captain's seat of a ship with Krystal held tight in his arms, there were red lights and alarms...he was seeing this as if it were all happening. As he looked up he noticed fresh earth rushing up toward the ship's viewing window, then there was darkness. As he came back to his sense he realized what had happened...

"I'm dead aren't I?"

The vision of Krystal looked to him with caring eyes, "Yes...and no."

"Then why are you here? Who are you and why do you look like Krystal?"

The vixen smiled, "I am nothing more than what you have made me out to be...I am Krystal, because that was your idea of paradise."

"Did anyone else die?"

"No one is dead yet."

Fox looked about the room, "Then why am I here?"

"Your body was terribly damaged in the crash, you are in the state of a coma. Your friends are attempting to help...but there is only so much that a mortal can do."

"You have to take me back..." Fox replied instantly with a hint of restlessness in his voice.

"I have no power I am only the thing that you wanted the most. The only one that can decide to send you back is you." She replied, "You could step through that door..." The blue fake said pointing to the door to the room, "...and go back to a place where there is more pain and suffering for everyone, or you could stay here where there is no such thing as pain and suffering. Just be warned that if you decide to go back, this place will no longer exist for you, you can never come back to this place no matter how hard you try if you leave..."

Fox looked to the door, it was a difficult choices no pain of suffering, but...the more he thought about it the the less of a choice there really was. He slowly waked to the door that this strange version of Krystal had pointed out. Fox stopped just before the door...

"You said this was paradise..." He said, "...but it's all fake. You may look, sound, and ever smell like her, but, you can never be Krystal...and that makes this a lot less than any paradise. My friends are important to me, mainly because I really don't have that many left. I've never said this but, my crew has always been like family to me...and I am not about to give up and die on them."

The door before him suddenly shot open releasing a blinding ray of light forcing him to advert his eyes, his chest suddenly burned as if it were on fire begging him to take in air, he suddenly began to cough as the fresh air rushed into his lungs, his sight was a mess from the light that flashed before his eyes. As he struggled to open his eyes his body felt as if every bone had been broken, breathing in itself was wracking his mind with endless waves of pain that seemed to be coming from everywhere all at once. He finally forced his eyes open; they where blurry but they were all there, he could make out everyone, he couldn't hear their voices but, seeing them was good enough. He couldn't lift his head to see how bad it all was but, the pain was enough to tell him that it was bad enough to explain the tears in Krystal and his mother's eyes. Fox forced himself to smile through all the pain. Which caused what looked like laughter to escape several of them, though he was certain that this was to cover up their worry. As he lay there through the day there wasn't much he found himself capable of doing, the pain was nearly unbearable at times attempting to lull him off to sleep but realizing that this was merely shock setting back in he forced himself back awake. All he found himself able to do was stare at the sky, he could feel and smell Krystal sleeping next to him, he wanted so badly to tell her that he was okay. It seemed as if it was through pure will that he managed to pull his arm around her which caused the blue vixen to rouse from her sleep...

"Fox?"

"H...hey." Fox managed to reply through the pain.

"We thought we'd lost you..."

"N...not a chance." Fox smiled smugly, "How long have I been like this."

"About a week...Silver and Jared left to look for any signs of life on this planet...but they haven't been back for a day or two." Krystal said, "I've tried using magic to heal you but, so far it's been going incredibly slowly, I managed to stop all of the bleeding but...you're still in really bad shape."

"What about...our ship?"

Krystal was silent for a moment, "The forest slowed everything down but, the ship's gone, there is no way to repair it. One of the arwings survived but, it's not in any working order...we'd need parts to rebuild it."

"Do we know what planet this is?" Fox asked.

"No...MIA...she's completely offline."

Fox was silent for a moment, "I'm gonna miss that computer."

Krystal somehow managed to hug him without making it hurt any more than it already did, "I don't care, I'm just glad you're okay. You really had me worried."

"Yeah...I worried myself for a minute there too...I saw the other side...but, then I remembered that you're here. It wouldn't really be heaven without you there." Fox smiled wrapping his arm around her as best he could, his limbs felt half numb.

Krystal simply nuzzled herself into his chest and eventually fell back asleep. The feeling of her soft fur against his and the warmth from her body seemed to make the pain a bit more bearable; this wasn't some sort of divine lie, it was the real thing...this was paradise, pain or no pain. He couldn't help but to fall asleep as he could feel Krystal's breathing and hear the light, nearly inaudible snore of hers that he'd always loved so much. The comfort of having her there was enough to help him sleep through the pain. The next morning was full of the same pain but, he somehow managed to look past it all, he found that over the week he'd been in that state of near death that Krystal had been finding some sort of way to keep him hydrated, and now that he was awake he was happy to fill his empty stomach with whatever food they had salvaged from the wreckage of the Dark Star. After some time Krystal found her way back to his side...

"I think tomorrow I can try healing some of those broken bones...but, I really overdid it with all the healing I've already done. I'm still pretty exhausted."

"The pain's not that bad..." Fox winced as a sharp bolt stabbed him in the side.

Krystal laughed a bit, "You're a terrible liar you know that?"

The others had managed to collect the bedding from the ship, and used most of the pillows that morning to prop the mangled vulpine into a sitting position...which he oddly found a lot less painful than when he was laying down. Over the hours he noticed that the others weren't so lucky after all in the wreck; Roxy had a broken arm and her head was heavily bandaged, Creed seemed to have a log of problems walking around, Shera clearly had a few broken ribs, his mother seemed to have a bit of trouble walking as well, and Lia was sitting near the fire with her back exposed as Krystal helped change a blood soaked bandage from her midsection...they were all fine in comparison to Fox but, they were all injured, he was simply the least luck in the instance of the crash. As Fox sat there he remembered something that he'd done when he first bought the Dark Star, the same thing he did with ROB's main drives and memory systems, he created a back up and stored it in his communicator, all it needed was a computer system to be integrated into, and according to Krystal there was an arwing left. When Krystal came back to check on him and change some of his bandages he haded her a small laser disk which caused her to look at him curiously...

"What's this?" She asked.

Fox smiled, "I told you...I loved that computer. That's MIA...I backed up all her drives and memory...just integrate that into that arwing's computer and we can find out where we are and send out a distress signal..."

Krystal smiled and kissed him on the cheek before rushing off toward the arwing sitting in the distance and after a few minutes she returned, "Okay everything's done, MIA is online but that little ship has limited signal strength in it's condition. She'll be able to scan the stars tonight and tell us where we are."

"Good the sooner we know where we are the sooner we can leave..." Fox said, "How's everyone else doing? I noticed you changing some kind of bandage on Lia..."

Krystal's face grew concerned, "It's not that bad...I healed it the best I could but, there's only so much magic can do.. Your Vixy and Creed both have a busted leg, Roxy has a broken arm and a pretty bad concussion, Shera busted her head on something and still has a pretty nasty concussion but her ribs are much worse, Jared seems to be okay but he hasn't moved his left arm for some time and he has a bad limp, Silver seems to be okay for the most part, he's mostly worried about everyone else..."

"What about you? Are you alright?" Fox asked.

"I'll be fine...I had to heal my own injuries before the others so I could help better." She replied, "It was only a broken arm...I've had worse."

"Good...as long as you're okay."

Krystal smiled at his words, she knew that he was in a mass of pain, but he was trying so hard not to show it for her sake. The day carried on and soon enough night had set in, Fox was a bit worried as Silver and Jared had not returned for some time from their trip around the local area...but a call from one of their communicators claiming that they'd be back soon cleared his thoughts of that, and replaced them with inquiries about where they might be, but soon enough MIA would finish her scan of the local stars and they would know exactly where they were. He had a rough guess about the area; they were in hyperspace for a max of at least five minutes before the engines keeled over.. At light speed they traveled a max of 9,750 astronomical units in that amount of time, from just outside of Kew's outer aerospace that would by his estimate put them somewhere at the cross between the Krazoa and Lylat systems...there were still quite a few uncharted planets in the general area, quite a few moons as well, if what he'd been told by Krystal was accurate this was just about the section of space once occupied by her home planet. It was still rather late when Krystal wandered over to Fox with a small plate of food, which she handed to him before taking a seat next to him...

"You already know where we are don't you?" Fox asked, sifting a bit uncomfortably.

"I can't say it for certain but this whole place has a familiar feel to it...almost like home but, not quite."

"According to some things I was going over since I...you know...can't move. We are in that region of space, this could be one of Cerinia's moons."

"If that's the case it would be one of the only ones...two of them were destroyed by the explosion." Krystal said with a hint of grief to her voice at the memory of her home, "If that is where we are then this could be Orannis...it, Vertax, and Narrah were the only three that weren't destroyed with the planet..."

"Then what makes you so sure this is Orannis?" Fox asked.

"Vertax is a barren place with red sand, and Narrah...it dose have forests but, none like this large one we're in. Unfortunately none of the three were inhabited when Cerinia was here."

Fox looked to the saddened vixen at his side as he ate, "Tell me about Cerinia. We never really sent anyone for Corneria there, aside from my father apparently crashing there and leaving with my mom."

Krystal sighed and rested her head on Fox's shoulder, "It was a beautiful place...there were forests and jungles like these everywhere, at night Cerinia's rings were perfectly visible, and her moons always seemed to show in the night sky. There was a huge lake near my village fed by this massive waterfall, Tevanni Summit...some of the braver young Cerinians would try proving themselves by diving off of the ridge into the lake, it wasn't even that scary doing it. Just beyond the forest we called home there was a large opened plain where a smaller village was, we were always told by the elder...my father, never to go there but, some did anyway. There were a race not like us there, they looked like lizards but, they were different somehow, they had bigger scales and they were much brighter colored..."

Fox nodded, "Mmm...the Drogan. They come from a planet on the far side of Dan'jas called Aetheria."

"Oh so they are known. There were some of them that were known as great prophets...I even made a friend there, which was odd because when I was young I had trouble getting along with others. It turned out that my friend had these dreams that often came true...and one day he told me that our world would not survive through the week but, he also told me not to worry that I would be taken care of...that in years to come I would come home. He always ranted on and on about some kind of savior from the stars, I wish he would have been around when your father showed up there...he'd have probably had a heart attack." Krystal laughed.

"Hmm...savior from the skies? Sounded like he was waiting for some sort of an angel to come and help."

"What good would that part of his prophecy had been?" Krystal asked, "He also predicted that I'd come home but, home isn't here anymore."

Fox wanted to say something reassuring but, she was right. All he found himself able to do was drape a sore arm over her shoulders and hope that it would help, which it did more than he could have hoped. It was just as Fox's eyes began to droop shut that creed rushed over...

"FOX!!" The large fox shouted, "We got a problem you two..."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Fox asked as Krystal sat up.

"MIA finished her scan just a few minutes after Silver and Jared got back...There's a battleship landing just outside of this forest...it's got the same registration ID as the Nemesis. Those dirty fucks tracked us here..."

"Really now?" Fox smiled, "They're landing here?"

"Yeah..." Creed answered, "What the fuck are you so happy about?"

Fox looked over to Krystal, "Can you finish healing some of these bones any time soon?"

"I can try why?" She replied with a heavy yawn.

"Because we're gonna steal the largest ship in the Lylat system." Fox replied with a very Falco-like grin.

* * *

**AN: Sorry for the length of the update I like to try and get one chapter up per week but, some things have been getting in my way, plus my editor got me hook on WOW so now I'm playing that like crazy. Luckily we're to chapter 40 however and that means the climax will be coming up soon, unless the unexpected happens like it did in Tails's Luck with was only supposed to be Ten chapters...so in the long run this will either be a 50 to 60 chapter story, I think I'll go for 60 though because I haven't seen one that long yet. Anyhow I'm ranting again so R&R and thanks for the constant support...especially The Incredible Furry Fan(T.I.F.F), Metalic Soul, ShadowFox0324, Str8shot, and PuffNStuff326**...

Thankz a bunch for the constant support guys...you all rock ass. - SkullFox


	42. Chapter XLI

**Chapter XLI**

Silver was sent to inspect the animals that were being sent into the woods after them all, he heard a commander mention that dead or alive he wanted to see the bodies...apparently they wanted to make sure that Fox and his group were out of the way. Silver made certain to follow the large group staying to the trees high overhead, from what he'd been told by Krystal fixing up their broken captain could take a few hours so, it was up to him to stall these morons until Fox was ready to move in. The more Silver thought about Fox's plan to steal the Nemesis the more he could see the brilliance, 80 percent of the ship's crew was split out in all directions looking for the Dark Star's wreckage, seemed only fit to abandon them here the same way they had done. Back at the small camp where the others waited, Krystal sat on both knees next to Fox, she'd healed him once before and he knew from experience that even through using magic setting bones and healing them was no more painful than doing it by hand, rather in his mind it hurt more, nothing he knew of could cause as much pain as magic sealing a broken bone back together...

"I hope you remember how much this hurts." Krystal said as her paws developed a burning blue light around them, "I'm still a bit rusty at this though."

"It's okay...I trust you, just try not to break anything else while you're in there." Fox smiled.

Suddenly Krystal lurched out with both palms slapping them lightly against his ribs, at first there was no feeling at all, just the warmth of her paws against his bare chest which made him chuckle a bit at the tickling sensation...however, as the first few seconds passed his chest began to burn. All at once he let out a muffled scream that stifled by biting his lip, if felt as if he'd ingested molten steel and it was sticking to his ribs burning it's way to the outside. At the moment Krystal however could hear none of this, the magic had washed away the color of her once pristine blue eyes leaving only the whites visible, no one would get through to her until she was done. The others could hear Fox's muffled screams of agony as Krystal tried her hardest to get their captain back into working order. Several times the others tried to go to check on Fox in the small tent that was pulled from the Dark Star's wreckage, but Creed blocked their way and simply told whoever it was to go back and sit down, Krystal needed all of her concentration to do what she was doing, and the last thing she needed was one of them to come along and ruin everything. As time passed Fox's cries of pain died down, though nobody knew that this was mainly because he'd passed out from the pain, a few hours passed and still there were no sounds from the tent, until finally, somewhere near nightfall the small flaps of the tent opened and Krystal staggered out falling into Creed's arms...

"Well..." Creed asked helping the exhausted vixen to her feet.

"He...he'll, he'll be fine...I...need water..." She said between heavily labored breaths.

Creed turned the vixen back toward the tent, "No you get your tail back in there and lay down, I'll find you something to eat, the last thing you need to do after that much healing is to be walking."

Krystal didn't have the energy to fight it, healing the wounds she'd healed several days ago were bad enough, but this was a full body healing from head to toe, if anything was going to sap her strength it would be that.. Creed helped Krystal back into the tent and lay her down next to Fox who looked no better than before, but, Creed had personally had her healing before, it hurt like a bitch but it did work like a miracle. The large red fox made his way out of the tent and returned with some small portion of food and water that was salvaged from the ship, Krystal hurriedly drank the water and took a few bites of what she could but, after a few minutes collapsed from the exhaustion. Creed stepped out of the tent and made his way to the others sitting by the fire...

"They're both asleep now...they should both be fine by tomorrow but, I'm not so sure if we've got that long."

Vixy looked over to Creed, "True...I know what kind of effect the magic can have on the body, she must be terribly exhausted..."

"Looks like the only thing we can do now is sit...and wait." Creed replied looking over to the tent.

* * *

**-000-**

Silver rushed through the forest's thick canopy, being eerily quiet in the process, one could have believed that he was born up there with the speed and ease in which he leaped from treetop to treetop, more like an ape than a fox. He knew that this small group he was following was headed for their camp but, for the most part the camp was still some ways away. It was time for that distraction. Silver moved in along the back of the group, there was a straggler in the group he only fell behind ever so many minutes to catch his breath but that was the point. As the small group moved forward Silver took a small head count 13 very unlucky number from what Fox had told him. As the small platoon of animals kept to their trudging through the forest there was a sudden sound that only the rear most soldier had noticed, he was a young tabby for a soldier, the sound instantly caused him to snap about with his rifle at the ready but there was nothing there but the falling leaves from the trees, and a discarded rifle and cover on the ground, on the side of the small military hat was written the name D. Sanders, the feline soldier instantly picked up the rifle and cover and rushed to the front of the line to a rather well build Doberman...

"Sarge Sanders, he's gone...he was right behind me but, then I turned around and he wasn't there."

"AWOL..." One of the others called jokingly.

"I doubt it..." Their leader said, "Sanders is a shitty excuse for a soldier but, he's no deserter, then again he' s most likely dead right now." The canine said looking to the trees, "So which one are we dealing with here?" He called out loud, "Can't be the big guy with the bionics, fucker'd break any branch he stood on, that leaves the captain and the weapon, and I'm betting that you happen to be Syler's precious little weapon."

"I'm nobody's weapon..." A light voice echoed through the trees, "but I am somebody's worst nightmare."

The last sentence was only heard by the Doberman as it was whispered into his ear by whomever held a set of incredibly sharp claws to his throat. The high ranked officer was paralyzed with fear, how could anyone move so quickly and so silently? As Silver held the Sargent by the neck on of the soldiers turned about to say something...

"Listen Sarge I really don't like..."

The wolf froze as he saw a silver furred fox standing behind the canine with his claws dug into the sides of his neck threatening to tear the poor animal's throat out. Silver noticed the wolf's attention and brought his free hand in front of his face placing his index finger against his nose. The wolf called for everyone's attention but, Silver, along with their Sargent vanished into the nearby bushes, leaving only his rifle and cover behind...

"THE FUCK WAS THAT!?" Another solder yelled, having barely caught a glimpse of Silver and their Sargent's disappearance.

"I don't know!" The wolf shouted back, "He grabbed the sarge and took off into the bushes."

"What the fuck?" Another soldier asked, "Nobody could sneak up on Sarge. Who the fuck is this guy?" The cat asked looking around to make sure he wasn't next.

"Well Emmerson..." A leopard said putting his paw on the wolf's shoulder, "Looks like you're in charge for now."

As the crew sat by at the camp waiting for Fox and Krystal to recover from everything a loud, scream shattered the night's silence, startling Roxy and Lia into letting out a small frightened yelp...

"Sounds like Silver's gotten started already...that means their close." Creed said.

"The kid's good if he can stay with them for so many hours without them noticing..." Jared pointed out, "These were nothing like the men we fought at Sargasso Station, they were clearly military and trained...but, judging by that scream I'd say he'll be just fine."

"Syler made the kid a killer...now it's their problem..." Creed said.

"You're wrong..." Roxy said warming her paws near the fire as the night brought with it a bitter chill, "...he doesn't want to fight or kill...but, he doing this to keep his friends safe."

"How do you know that?" Creed asked.

"Because he told me..."

Suddenly a voice caught everyone's attention, "Hey...what's with the screaming?"

Everyone turned to see Fox standing near the tent yawning and rubbing his temples...

"You feel'n alright now?" Creed asked.

"I feel like I've been hit by a bus but...I'll be fine. Krystal's exhausted though, healing so much at once took a shit load out of her...but we can't wait any longer. Where's Silver?"

"Tracking the nearest group of soldiers making sure they don't get too close before you two are alright..." Roxy said.

"Right...gather what weapons you can off the ship, cuz as soon as he gets back we're going in." Fox said sitting down where Vixy passed him some food, "Creed...you'll have to carry Krystal. I don't think she's in any particularly stable condition to be woken up and having her running around...and you're the only one who can carry the extra weight without having it slow you down."

Vixy looked to her son, "How do you intend to get past the ship's security?"

Fox held up the small disc that contained MIA's system drives, "Yeah...I sort of have a plan about that too."

"Fox there's something else that seems a bit off..." Creed said, "That Camile chick...sorta disappeared just after we crashed. She wasn't nearly as badly banged up as the rest of us but still, she did leave in the middle of the night."

"You think she sent out a signal for the Nemesis?" Fox asked.

"I'm not sure...she seemed pretty damn sincere back on the ship."

"I don't think she called them here..." Fox replied handing the empty plate back to Vixy, "...but, I would like to know where she went...for now just scan over the ship for weapons, and make sure to get that map cylinder thing, we do NOT want to leave that behind."

The others snapped to their assignment, rushing to the ship making sure to scour over ever single piece of dislodged wreckage for whatever weaponry could be salvaged from the crash site. In this time Fox fell back into the tent to check on Krystal, she was feeling a bit feverish so Fox lay a cold, wet cloth on her forehead. After a few moments Fox smiled as he saw her eyes flutter open...

"Hey..." She said in a weak voice.

"Hey yourself." Fox replied.

"Are you...okay?" Krystal asked.

"Yeah...thanks to you."

This time Krystal smiled, "I guess...that's what, twice I've saved your life...compared to about twenty times you've saved mine...I'm catching up."

Fox leaned down and gently kissed the blue vixen, "What about you? You feeling okay?" He asked.

"I am now..." She answered smiling, she looked like she had a bit of trouble but she did sit up, "How are the others?"

"Their fine...we're getting ready to take the ship."

"I think I may have tried too hard..." Krystal said, "I feel like I can barely stand up."

"That's alright we have that worked out already...Creed's gonna carry you. Think you can still fire a weapon?"

"I'm sure I can manage that much..." She smiled.

"Fox!!" Lia's voice called from outside, "Silver's back!!"

"That's our cue..." Fox said pulling Krystal's arm over his shoulders to support her walking, as soon as they were near the fire he allowed her to sit down, "How many weapons we got?"

Creed looked to the small pile of arms that they had gathered, "Three hand blasters, a couple of .45s, one rocket launcher, that sword that psycho left with you, three assault rifles and five plasma grenades...oh yeah we also found two cloaking devices but they were wet so I'm not so sure how well they work."

"Silver how many are headed this way?" Fox quickly asked.

"Five are headed this way, and there's a team of thirteen heading in each direction...plush the six that were left to guard the ship, those ones are pretty heavily armed though."

"I really don't wanna risk this with Krystal in her condition so...Silver you're gonna lead us around any of the soldiers headed this way that you left alive, we need to make this as quiet as possible...not to mention I'm not sure how extensive her healing was, she really exhausted herself..."

"No problem the ones that are left are all pretty badly shaken up...two of them even seem to think the place is haunted."

Everyone suited up for whatever they could expect from the soldiers; Fox took the sword and a blaster, Creed was left with the rocket launcher and the grenades, Krystal was settled on Creed's back piggy back style and given a rifle, Silver and Jared also took a rifle, the two leftover blasters went to Shera and Lia, and Roxy and Vixy each took one of the older archaic 45s. As soon as they were armed Silver took the lead and began to show them the way to the ship that was from his guess about a mile or so into the woods, not much of a walk but, still quite a bit with the amount of injuries in the group. The kept to a path directly south of their small camp, and for the longest time there was nothing until Silver froze and dropped down behind the bushes, Fox and the others quickly followed in step and not a moment too soon as a small band of seemingly spooked soldiers walked bay several feet away from where the small group of friends had hidden. After the soldiers were out of sight the small band kept to their track following behind their silver furred escort, who thankfully after what seemed like and eternity of silent walking were brought to a halt...

"What's up?" Fox asked moving behind Silver.

"It's just beyond the trees there, that's where the forest ends for a short while..." Silver pointed out, "Now what?"

"You all wait for my call keep your communicators on."

"What are you going to do?" Krystal asked.

"That ship's computer's about to have a serious personality check..." Fox said holding up the small disc that Krystal was very familiar with causing her to smile a bit.

"What are you smiling about?" Creed asked noticing her grin out of the corner of his eye.

"MIA...is on that disc..." Krystal pointed out, "As soon as he integrates it into the Nemesis's drives that entire ship will only react to someone who has voice command over MIA...and the only other eight that can do that are all standing out here."

Fox had taken the two cloaking devices from Creed before leaving the camp, he had no intentions of making this any harder on Krystal than it already was, and in their current condition he didn't want any of his crew caught in any kind of a fire fight...once they got into space again they'd be safe, even a Cornerian destroyer would think twice about approaching the Nemesis without back up. Fox turned on the first cloaking device as soon as he could see the massive dreadnought lying in wait in the middle of a grassy knoll, the six soldiers that Silver had mentioned were all standing at attention, he wasn't kidding when he said heavily armed, grenades, M-4.68 assault rifles, and each was wearing a blast shield. Fox admitted to himself how much he loved technology as he managed to simply walk by the soldiers and onto the ship from the still opened bay doors. This ship's hall were anything but empty as Fox made his way unnoticed through the halls, he even had time to stop and check a local access panel for a map of the ship. When he reached the bridge Fox was pleasantly surprised that only four animals were there to take care of things, good to know that four hands alone could pilot the massive thing. The bridge was much larger than any other ship he'd ever seen; the floor inclined slightly downward toward the middle from the doorway, ending in sever massive viewing panels that completely covered the triangular room's front most walls, there were masses of computer terminals as well that lined the room, the captain's seat looked rather comfortable as it was a bit larger and more padded than the one on the Dark Star. Fox made his way over to one of the computer terminals where he inserted MIA's back up program, and then typed away the proper commands quickly overriding the system with MIA's help...

Those on the bridge looked to each other as they all heard an unfamiliar voice emanate from the overhead speakers, "Full integration complete." MIA's voice said.

"MIA lock the doors and put a 12 score encryption on the locks." Fox said phasing into sight, "Your attention please." He then called holding up a small blaster.

The clearly unarmed attendants rushed for the door which quickly pulled itself shut, "Now...I've never done this before, but this is a hostile take over and if you all appreciate living, you may want to do what I say...I'm in no mood to fuck around. The ship has been overridden by my old ship's AI program, which didn't seem so hard since this ship didn't have one of it's own...I guess you all just like the paws on approach. Either way that door is going to stay locked and the first of you to try anything stupid gets everyone else in here killed. We understand each other?"

The bridge crew backed away from the door...

"Good..." Fox smiled, "Now faces against the wall...a body part moves I take it off..." He said getting nothing but odd looks in reply, "MOVE!"

At the raising of his voice the four animal rushed to the wall he'd pointed to pressing the front of their bodies against it...

Now he had to think of a way to get the others on board, Fox turned on his communicator, "Hey there mission accomplished, MIA now has total control over this ship's systems. Can you all think of a way to get onto the ship?"

"I have an idea but, it's not much of a smart one...It'll drag out some attention." Creed's voice replied.

Fox turned back to face the bridge hands only to notice one typing at a computer, Fox whipped his father's knife from his belt launching it across the room where it buried itself in the cat's right eye. The scene caused the female of the four to scream at the horror of her team mate's grizzly end...

"Well if you've got a plan do it fast...cuz we're about to have a lot of company."

Creed handed Krystal to Jared and made his way toward the ship, it was going to be costly but he pulled the rocket launcher from his back, and took aim at one of the six animal now trying to get to the bay door that was closing them out of the ship. The powerful R.P.G (rocket propelled grenade), flashed from the large weapon mounted on Creed's shoulder, unfortunately for the animal he'd aimed at, the weapon's guidance systems were fully functional. The high explosive struck the animal in the chest, causing a small but all too deadly explosion to tear it's body apart spraying the ship in the gore than ensued, the shock wave from the rather powerful blast sent the other's that were standing nearby flying in several directions, there was no escaping the fact that most of them were most likely dead. Creed rushed back to the others the best he could and took Krystal onto his back...

"Fox...open the bay doors I'm sure you heard that...so did they." Creed practically yelled into his communicator.

Fox was still on on the bridge when he heard the sound of rapid gunfire sounding through his communicator, Fox had dispatched the crew of the bridge, something he really didn't want to do but was really given no choice. As he left the bridge to help the others he made sure that MIA locked down all the ship's systems, whoever was in their rooms would be locked inside as the door scanners would no longer react to any of them. He feared for the others as he wasn't really sure how many there were. As Fox rushed down the ship's long halls his balance was put off a bit by a loud explosion. Apparently whatever their numbers there were enough of them to make Creed start throwing grenades. As Fox approached the bay doors that he'd come in through he noticed what looked like a small force of animals on the docking bay hiding behind random crates as well as the small fighters and tanks that were placed around the massive room. The others were already on the ship but, there were more of Omni's soldiers quickly approaching the ship...

"MIA close bay doors now!" Fox shouted over the deafening gunfire.

The large bay doors slowly began to rise but Fox was certain that it wouldn't be fast enough to stop the approaching soldiers from getting aboard the ship. On a snap decision Fox climbed aboard what looked like a newer model of a Landmaster and quickly fired up it's engines. The massive vehicle, rattled for a moment but, then suddenly shot forward as Fox stepped on the accelerator steering the tank toward the large group firing at his crew. Most of the animals made a leap for safety but a few were caught under the 4ton structure as it plowed through their roughly made barricade of supply crates. As Creed and the others watched on the seemingly out of control tank veered toward the bay doors charging it's cannon before letting of a blast of plasma made the vehicle kick back on it's wheels, the sound forced everyone in the large room to cover their ears. The dark illuminating bolt of plasma shot out the bay doors and slammed into the large group of soldiers that rushed upon the ship, several were instantly blown apart others were dismembered, some that managed to get away suffered terrible burns and broken bones from the shock wave given off by the small but, powerful explosion given off by the impacting bolt of energy. Soon enough the bay doors were fully closed, unfortunately the numbers in the room began to escalate. Several shots flew from Fox's crew's side mowing down several enemies in the path of the plasma and hot lead...Fox turned his tank about and made another pass at the soldiers hitting very few this time; but this time as he turned the ship about several of the animals froze as they noticed the charging barrel of the tank was facing their position, most of the soldiers that looked to the tank got more of their attentions, soon a large mess of them were looking to the small tank. Suddenly an arwing in the docking bay had taken too much and burst into flames gathering the animals attention, Fox took this moment to make another pass while his crew laid down their suppressing fire, this time the results were devastating, Fox's tank began rocking violently as the animals became nothing less than speed bumps under the vehicle's Triple Turillium belted tires, turning whatever was pulled beneath them into a rather putrid looking mush, some of them managed to get out of the way but were cut down by Fox's crew, and as soon as the room looked clear Fox leaped from his blood covered vehicle. As they all moved away from their cover Fox noticed that Creed, and Jared had been hit, Creed's other leg had been struck, and Jared was holding a rather nasty looking plasma burn on his right shoulder, and Krystal seemed to have long since passed out...

"Okay, Everyone follow me to the bridge." Fox said leading everyone to the bridge, "We're gonna make sure nobody else is on this ship."

"And how are we gonna do that without going from room to room?" Vixy asked.

Fox didn't answer until they arrived on the bridge, "MIA...take us into the planet's orbit then cut the life support to every room accept the bridge for 20 minutes just to make sure."

As the ship began to climb Silver looked out at the planet's surface as it slowly began to pull away from the ship's viewing windows, Roxy, who was standing next to him noticed he looked different, almost sad..

"Hey is something wrong?"

He sort of faked a smile, "No...not really."

No one else would know the truth about Camile, for Silver was the only one there when she died, for some reason instead of allowing Krystal to heal her she hid her wounds no matter how grave they were...she told Silver that it was her fate, that she deserved to die for what she'd done to him and that she was sorry but, Silver simply told her that there was nothing to be sorry about, that if she hadn't done what she did, he'd never had the chance to meet any of the friends that were no less family to him now than she was. He didn't quite know how to feel for her, he knew what it meat to be sad, but, was it a sad death when she died smiling?

As soon as they were in space MIA's voice came through the ship's PA system, "Life support systems not isolated to the bridge."

"Good..." Fox replied, "Now lets get this thing to Corneria. We've got a war to stop."

* * *

**AN: WOW...41 chapters...to be honest I never expected this fic to go this far when I first started it, but, I'm glad it did. It's given me some new ideas toward future stories and some much needed experience in dealing with writer's block. Thank you all very much for all of your support, there should be more supporting people in the world right now we'd all be better all...You're all the greatest and thanks for reading. C'ya for chapter 42...Laters **

The footsteps in the darkness SkullFox


	43. Chapter XLII

**Chapter XLII**

Fox sat on the bridge looking over a displayed list of names on the large screen in front of him, the size of the list of names Camile had left with them was disturbingly large, and a great number of the names had a seat on the high council...and the Katinan council, that must have been how they were manipulating the war. It would however be stopped, by this list of names which he was already downloading into his communicator, and sending to Bill Gray whom was still on Corneria. It was getting late, however and the team was still cleaning up the mess that was made procuring their new flagship. It was as Fox went over this list startled by the sheer volume of it that Krystal walked in yawning heavily...

"Hey you feeling any better?" He asked turning to greet the blue vixen.

"Uh..._yawn..._huh." She answered, "What's that?"

"The names of all the people working for Omni caught up in the government. It's scary...I know at least 60 of these names and at least half sit on the council They've been manipulating the war from the inside Krystal...but why? They don't really gain anything, they practically own the entire planet already to begin with...it doesn't make any sense at all."

Krystal smiled and sat on his lap wrapping her arms around his neck, "You're thinking way too much into it..." She said kissing the corner of his muzzle, "Just watch, as soon as you take your mind off of this you'll figure it out."

Fox smiled and kissed her back, "This is a lot worse than I thought though...how do you fight something this fucking big?"

"Cerinian battle tactic..." Krystal said jolting her claws to the center of his chest, "Strike the heart...kill the beast."

"That's just the problem, the heart has no connection to the body." Fox replied, "and as long as Syler's alive we can be assured that Omni will keep coming and even then unless the company is completely destroyed..."

"Well there...how dose a company normally die?" Krystal asked playing with his longer white hair, she wasn't sure about the style seeing Fox with a long white ponytail but, she kind of liked his hair.

As Fox thought about her question a smile spread across his face, "It goes bankrupt."

Krystal chuckled a bit, "What?"

"Think about it. Omni has so many working for it because of the nice little check it can put in your paws...what would happen to it's company morale if say, their economical situation took a drastic spill?" Fox said, "I don't know about you but if I were getting a nice fat pay check for doing something of the sort that Omni is doing, and suddenly got cut off...I'd be one pissed off son of a bitch."

Fox thought for another moment, "MIA break us out of hyperspace...then look up and archive all of Omni's assets I want to know where every credit of their company's income is coming from and who's supplying it. Bringing the armada to him is one thing, but, first I'm gonna make his own men wanna kill him, then when they don't wanna listen, well stick an armada so far up his blue ass he'll have plasma exhaust coming out of his ears."

"FOX you're a genius!" Krystal said hugging him.

Fox quickly kissed her on the cheek, "It was your idea...Syler may be the head of the company now, but, even the head can't live without the heart...and income is the heart of any company. MIA take us to Sauria so we can sort out some sort of plan...I just hope everyone on Corneria can hold off long enough for us to get started."

After the ship started toward Sauria, Creed entered the room, "Yo Fox...what the hell's going on? We stopped all of a sudden."

"We're going to give Syler a little lesson in business ethics..."

Creed looked at the captain with confusion...

"Look...Omni's men have control of the council. Even if we were to somehow manage to get in there. Who do they have to believe?" Fox asked, "You and Krystal? You two are wanted for my death, so is Lia compliments of Omni...they'd turn Silver over to Syler, what dose that leave us with. I'm supposedly dead so...they'd never believe that I'm Fox McCloud and I doubt they'd wait to find out before offing my ass, that leaves...a bar hostess, a mercenary and his girlfriend...and the council never really cared for the idea of using mercenaries for the military in the first place so they aren't going to quickly buy anything that Jared or Shera have to say."

"Okay I get your reason but, what's your point? What lesson?"

"The lesson is...Keep your employees happy or they could turn on you." Fox replied.

"You think you can turn Omni over on itself...this I gotta hear." Creed said crossing his arms over his chest.

Fox and Krystal explained every detail of Fox's plans, toward what they were going to do by cutting off Omni's source of income. Creed couldn't help but laugh at the idea, he liked the sound of it, no fighting, or at least not much, just simple use of the mind. He'd seen companies go down so fast before simply because of the sheer fact that some other company began to attract all the money causing their employees to turn to other places for work. It sounded like a solid plan and Fox had already found the source of Omni's majority income...

"The Black Market?" Creed asked, "That doesn't make much sense at all...what could they sell there that they couldn't sell on the streets?"

"Bio and viral weapons, certain other things banned by the Cornerian Alliance? Did you get a look at the arwing's in the docking bay of this ship? T-1s...The Mk-3 isn't scheduled for release to the military for another 6 to 18 months...they aren't even fully done with the tests, yet...Omni is mass producing them." Fox said, "But that's on another note, Krystal tells me you have some pull on the market...that both of you have built up a popularity there."

"That's right...whenever we'd take over somebody's equipment or ships after turning them in we always got more cash for the stuff on the market."

"I want you to tell me everything there is to know that I don't already know about the black market...but not now...I think we could all use some food and a little shut eye."

"Yeah...I can agree with that, but we need a hover car or something cuz this ship is fucking huge...it took me 15 god damn minutes to walk here from the docking bay."

Krystal laughed out loud hopping off of her furry seat, "You always complained that the Curse was too small."

"Well then lets call the others in and head to the kitchen..." Creed said heading to the door but suddenly stopping, "Hang on a sec...Where the fuck is the kitchen?"

"MIA..." Fox said after a short laugh, "Locate kitchen."

"The galley is located on the fourth floor deck near the observation deck. Fifth door to the left after the lifts." The computerized voice replied.

"Thank you MIA." Fox replied heading out into the massive ship's many halls with Krystal and Creed in step.

The walk along the way was rather long, Fox truly did not long for the day he'd have to start with system repairs on the ship, the halls were wide enough for the three to walk abreast of one another with still enough room for a large passerby to get though to either side. Most of the rooms were for storage on the sixth deck where they currently were also called the Bridge Deck, as they approached the lifts Fox called the other's on the PA system telling them where to meet. As they stepped inside of the metal box Fox realized that even the lifts were huge on this ship, the capacity must have been insane. The elevator soon stopped and opened it's doors to the living deck, where all the living quarters and such were located, as well as training rooms, and the kitchen. Fox was amazed when he saw a deck chart on their way to the kitchen, the decks in order from the top of the ship to the bottom were; the bridge, an entire medical deck, the living quarters where they were, the docking bay and flight deck, then engines and maintenance, and finally the brig was located at the bottom of the ship. As they approached the end of the Living quarters near the side of the ship, Fox found that the massive room dwarfed the kitchen in either the Dark Star or the Great Fox many times over, rather than a large room there were no door, it expanded out to the sides in a round shaped room covered in small tables and booths like a small restaurant, the cooking area was also much larger being there was enough room for more than four cooks at once behind the large bar like counter, the entire wall across from the entrance to the room was nothing more than a long panel of viewing windows that gave a marvelous veiw of the spectacular light show that came with light speed travel. Krystal seemed mesmerized by the sights, as it looked as if she could reach out and touch the lights from the window she now stood at...

"I've never seen it this close before..." She said with awe in her voice as Fox stepped up beside her, "It's so beautiful..."

Fox pulled her close to him with his arm over her shoulders, "I know something a lot more beautiful." He said looking down to her causing her cheeks to turn a deep purple color.

For a moment the two looked into each others eyes before their lips finally met, "Hey!" Creed called interrupting the moment, "None of that you two...we're here for food...and I can concentrate a helluva lot easier without watching that. That's what personal quarters are made for anyhow."

Krystal laughed a bit kissing Fox again before looking over to the fiery furred fox, "What's the matter Creed? Where's your sense of romance?"

"I killed it..." He replied sternly pulling his head out of the fridge with a bottle of some kind of drink in his paw with he pointed at the blue vixen, "And my sense of humor is next."

Fox laughed out loud, "I think you need a girl Creed."

Creed rolled his eyes, "Yeah maybe you're right...but what'er ya gonna do?" He asked shrugging his shoulders.

"A lot of girls like big men Creed. Big, strong men." Krystal said.

"Yeah. I guess dating would be easier now that my arms don't make me look like a cyborg or someth'n huh?" He replied examining the front and back of his paw for a moment, "Well there's plenty of food in here so get your furry asses over here and help me make something to eat."

As Creed and the other two cooks got to work the others began to show up, Roxy and Silver were first to show up, not surprisingly paw in paw, they'd become a little less sensitive to showing their feelings in public anymore apparently. Krystal found something cute about it all, Fox had some suspicions about the two long before anyone else so he took the whole thing as though it was simply natural, and for some reason any time Creed saw the two together he could only smiled and shake his head. Vixy was the next person to show up, she didn't look too impressed by the room but still examined it as if she were...

"The ships have gotten bigger since me and your father's time." She said to Fox before looking for a seat.

Shera, Jared, and Lia were the last ones into the room, "This place is way too fuck'n big." Jared said as they all walked to their seats.

Everyone was happy to have cooked food instead of what scraps they were able to salvage from the wreckage of the Dark Star...the crew was eager for the hot meal Creed, Krystal, and Fox had prepared. As Fox and Krystal sat at a table with Creed sitting across from them, he thought about the sheer size of this new ship, and imagined the size of the crew he could build to run it...but, he had no intentions of going back to that kind of life, after this thing with Syler and the staff was settled he had his plans for the future. As they sat there eating Creed rolled his eyes as Krystal jumped giggling a bit as Fox brushed his tail against her ribs tickling her a bit which caused her to drop her fork and punch him playfully...

"Knock if off...Fox." She chuckled.

Fox simply bore a sheepish grin as he sat there, Creed found the look on Krystal's face to be a bit humorous as well but as he finished his meal he looked to the two of them and pushed his plate out of the way...

"Hey lovebirds..." He said getting their attention, "I believe you wanted some information Fox?"

"Yeah...sorry Creed." Fox said shifting his attention from Krystal to Creed.

"It's alright..." Creed replied, "Tell me Fox what do you know about the black market?"

"Just about the same thing most people know about it." Fox replied, "They sell things illegally, weapons, ships, even people...other than that I've never really gotten close enough to the market to learn anything about it."

"Well then." Creed began, "For starters there are three Tiers to the entire black market, there are your Runners, really just a glorified name for a smuggler, these are the guys that find this illegal crap and ship it to the market, they don't initially have anything to do with that market other than the fact that they sell their things there. Above them you've got the actual sellers, they're the ones that actually control the prices of the wares in the market, among everyone there these guys hold all the power, accept for one other person. The whole thing is under the control of the local mafia, Don Marx...this is the guy we need to see...he controls everything that happens on the black market, if there's a sale that he doesn't want to happen...by hell or high water it ain't gonna happen. Unfortunately we have a slight problem with Marx..."

"What problem?" Krystal asked.

"Seems that someone by the name of James McCloud put him in prison for a bout 10 years a long time ago...never really sat too well with him. I don't imagine he'd be in a hurry to help James's son...but, as long as he doesn't know that you're Fox McCloud, you don't really look too much like him anymore so hopefully that won't be an issue of any kind."

"Then maybe it's best that I stay here...we don't wanna risk him knowing my face."

Creed nodded in agreement, "Well the best place to go for the market would be Nattix. It's the second moon of Tarros-4, ninety percent of the planet's income comes from the market. So you can see how important it is to the people there. For the most part Omni could be selling anything there, and I imagine with all the gangs and such around they'd have no problem selling any kind of ship or weapon not allowed by the Alliance. Not to mention the factions of terrorists and such that could buy materials for W.P.Ds (weapons of planetary destruction)."

* * *

**A/N: W.P.Ds don't necessarily destroy planets... P  
**

* * *

"Creed. I'm going to leave that part to you...you seem to know a lot about this whole black market thing...and Krystal tells me you're in pretty good with the Don. So I want you to at least take Silver with you, just in case. There are plenty of ships in the docking bay, arwings and transports...just make sure that you two come back and keep in touch with us as often as possible."

"What are you all gonna do here then?" Creed asked.

"I'll contact my friend Bill Gray and go over everything with him. He has a lot of pull with the Katinan council." Fox replied, "We need to cover this thing from both angles just in case it doesn't work out with the Don. While you're working things out on Nattix, Bill will be here with us working out what to do after Omni goes belly up, they're gonna be on the defensive as soon as their funds start dropping."

"Whatever you say..." Creed said, "You're the captain."

Soon enough the other's met in the docking bay to see Creed and Silver off...each of them had taken one of the ship's arwings for themselves and not surprisingly Fox could see that Roxy had already boarded Silver's ship. Fox began to object but, Krystal silenced him knocking off his balance with her shoulder then shaking her head at him as he looked at her...

"Leave them be Fox...they're young." She said lightly.

Fox sighed, "Yeah...I guess you're right. Those two area well more than capable of keeping her safe."

Before boarding his craft Creed made his way over to Fox and Krystal's position in the large room...

"I'll keep in touch...and don't worry Silver can keep an eye on her...the market may be ran by some shady people but, Nattix usually isn't that bad of a place, she should be fine. After we get there and find a room for the night I'll contact you guys and see how things are going on your end."

Fox shook the large vulpine's reconstructed paw, which felt surprisingly real, "Good luck...Syler wants a war we'll give him one. We need to get rid of Omni but, the most important thing is getting that spear back, there's no telling what could happen if he were to find out about the other pieces of the blade." Fox smiled, "And he still owes me for that ship he wrecked."

Creed chuckled a bit, "What this one not compensation enough?"

"Oh it is...but still...I liked that ship."

It was only a few minutes later when the others all sat by to watch the fighters leave the docking bay; Fox was amazed at how quickly the engines heated up on the newer models...and was filled with glee at the sheer thought that all 15 that he counted hadn't cost him a dime. He told himself that when he had nothing better to do he'd go over one of the small fighter's schematics and find out what was different than the older MK-2 models...but as the two ships carried their three friends off and out of the docking bay Fox turned toward the door and headed out...

"MIA...open a sub-space link to Bill Gray. Tell him that Fox McCloud has a plan to stop his little war."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the length of the update got caught up in some things...and never got the chance to go over the chapter but couldn't sleep last night so I thought I'd just pound it out real quick. Sorry if this chapter is a bit slow but, it'll pick up fast. Thanks for the tons of support as usual...**

The footsteps in the darkness - SkullFox


	44. Chapter XLIII

**-Chapter XLIII-**

It wasn't long after talking with Bill that Fox's old friend agreed to meet him in Sauria's orbit, Bill was in more of a hurry to end this war than possibly any other animal on Corneria or Katina. Fox was happy to know that Bill was in such a hurry to help their cause but, then again, most people in Bill's situation would have been in a hurry to end the fighting and get home. Krystal had noticed that Bill looked exceptionally depressed, but hadn't bothered to ask why, it was as she followed Fox to the docking bay where he had intended to take a closer look at one of the newer arwings that she thought about it...

"Fox...Was something wrong with Bill? He looked really down." She asked as Fox removed his shirt and slid under the machine.

"Ayme...she's dying." He replied from under the small aircraft, "Some sort of disease. The doctors told her that it was either her or the baby, but you know Ayme, she's wanted to be a mother for as long as I could remember. Bill's been on end lately, she could go into labor any day, and they're holding him light years away from her. He'll probably be court marshaled for coming out here now but, I don't think he really gives a shit anymore."

Krystal didn't want to sit on the subject anymore, it was far too depressing, "What are you doing under there?"

"Looking for the maintenance panel these things are fuck'n weird..."

After a bit Krystal found herself staring at the furry abs that were just visible as Fox's head and chest were under the docked machine. There were certain daydreams that she didn't mind having at that moment, she used to have her little daydreams about Fox on a regular basis, that was until he left her on Kew before the war. A shrill whistle caught her ears forcing her out of her own little personal paradise, only to find Fox looking at her. She instantly felt her cheeks begin to burn...

"W-w-what I'm sorry you caught me thinking..." Krystal said hiding her face from him.

"I asked if you wanted to help me check out this thing's engines." He said clearly repeating himself.

"Oh...okay."

Fox placed his paw on her forehead for a second, "You feeling alright? You feel kinda warm."

Krystal smiled at the fox's sweetness, "Yes Fox...I'm fine. Just a little...lost in thought."

Fox never bothered putting his shirt back on, he really didn't want to get it dirty over something so trivial as checking the small ship's engines. While Fox waited behind the ship, Krystal cleared her head and made her way over beside him where Fox had removed the panels of the ship around it's engine showing it's more important parts...

"That's weird this piece look familiar to you?" Fox asked tapping a large chrome colored cylinder.

"It looks just like that thing you said you stole from Omni..."

"Right. MIA said it was something called a Crystalic Fusion Array. So I was right...it was built for an engine...but, what dose it do?"

Fox spent most of the day studying the more intricate parts of the new arwings and found very little difference from the older models; they were a bit more streamline than the older models, and a bit less geometrical in shape, they looked a lot like an unscaled MK-2 like the one he flew in the Angalar war. He went over every aspect of them and found very little had changed, the overall components were nearly the same accept that the engine was not the standard MTD-FX1 plasma engine that the previous models had used, and the G-diffuser output was practically off the charts, for something so close to the older models, Fox couldn't put his finger on what could increase the engine's output by such a large rate...that was until he removed the array and tested it by itself. He discovered that the array was designed for the sole purpose of recycling and amplifying power supplies on a numerical scale...where the other engines could put out a lot of energy, thanks to the array these engines could outdo them by an exponential rate...

As Fox sat by taking a drink from a small water bottle Krystal made her way back to the docking bay, "So...you find out what the deal with these things is?" She asked.

Fox wiped the sweat from his forehead, "Yeah...it's all that fucking array." He said pointing to the piece now laying on the ground, "It takes in energy, recycles it, then puts out about 10.5 times that amount of energy. Our old fighter were capable of Mach 4...5 at best with atmospheric pressure. I wouldn't be surprised if we could hit Mach 8 maybe even Mach 10 in these things...And that's getting pretty fucking dangerous."

"Why is that?" Krystal asked sitting next to him.

"A G-diffuser can only handle so many Gs before it's recoil system seizes up. That happens when you're traveling that fast. You're fucked. The ship may be able to handle that many Gs but, you can't." Fox pointed out, "Other than the array the only things I found any different were the small tweaks to the control scheme and the fact that for some reason they didn't use the old T&B H-1 laser cannons from the older models."

"What dose this ship use?"

"Beats me..." Fox replied, "Something MIA called a TC-81 Vector...I've never heard of em...they aren't even lasers they're plasma cannons. This thing could punch a hole in the Great Fox like it wasn't even there."

Krystal looked to Fox with a half assed grin, "When did you become so damn smart?"

Fox chuckled a bit, "Well when I left the team Slip wasn't around so I had to step up my knowledge of the ships...learn how to handle major repairs for myself. Three or four years is a lot of time to learn."

"Hey you know what?" Krystal said changing the subject and looking to Fox a bit sheepishly, "You never showed me that tracking device you supposedly put on me."

Fox blushed a bit as he smiled, "Do I still need to take off my clothes or was that a trick?" She asked with a smile.

Fox smiled as he stood up pointing to her right paw, "It's in that ring on your pinky. I turned the device off a long time ago though...after our little meeting when you and Creed found my useless ass floating in space. After that I just figured you didn't want to see my face again so, I decided to lay off."

Krystal sat there playing with the small gold band on her pinky finger, "To be honest at that point I really didn't want to see you. Of course there was a part of me that really did thought..."

"Really?" Fox asked beginning to set eh ship's parts back into their proper place, "What part might that be?"

Krystal placed her paw on her chest, "My heart. Despite how much I tried to fight off what feelings I still had for you...you were always there, even if the sight of your face made me want to punch you in the mouth."

Fox laughed, "And if you remember correctly you did...in fact we both did."

Krystal laughed a bit, "I think I deserved the pounding just as much as you did."

"Well at least I should thank you for keeping it above the belt." Fox said peeking around the arwing with a slight smirk on his face, "You're a lot stronger than you used to be. I was impressed." Fox said going back to his work.

Krystal's face burned with embarrassment again, "Say Fox. About how long would you say we were dating back before the war?"

"Ow!" Fox yelped as his paw slipped banging his elbow on the ship's engine, "Exactly 9 months and 23 days."

Krystal smiled, "You actually memorized that?"

"Of course I did..." He said finishing up with the ship and sitting beside her using his shirt to wipe the sweat from his face, "Why wouldn't I be counting the happiest days of my life?" He asked, "Look I never told you this before but, I always thought that...well...you know...you were the one. The girl I was going to spend my life with. Falco said I was crazy, but, I had a ring picked out and everything."

Krystal thought for a moment, "You were going to ask me to marry you?"

Fox smiled as he pulled his shirt back over his head, "Pretty much...that was until the war started. At that point I was so worried about you, that I couldn't even get any sleep, I just kept worrying about what would happen to you. So I got that worry out of my head, and tried to make sure you wouldn't be there for the war. Showed me how well that worked out thought didn't you."

Krystal chuckled a bit, "Damn straight."

There was a bit of a silence for a while before Fox stood up announcing that he needed something to eat, Krystal made her way over to him looping her arm around his. As they walked down the hall she looked up to Fox from her head's position on his shoulder...

"You know..." She said, "I would have said yes."

"Yeah..." Fox replied, "I know."

* * *

**-000-**

As the two made their way to the ship's kitchen they found that the place seemed to be deserted, it was later than either of them had thought, everyone else on board had alreay headed to bed long ago. Fox didn't make much, just a sandwich as he was hungry but not unbareably so. There were oddly enough no words spoken between the two as they sat there, Krystal simply sat by watching the handsome young fox eat, and even it she didn't notice it Fox's eyes were glued to her. She wished that for just one minute she could read his mind...but, that was one of the things that had always attracted her to him, unlike everyone else she couldn't see what he was thinking,,,maybe that was why it hurt so much when kicked her off of the team, because she couldn't see it coming. She had always known he cared, even when he did it, sensing his emotions was a different matter than his thoughts. It was as Fox sat there chewing his food that he noticed a familiar glint in the Cerinian's eyes...

"You're trying to read my mind again...you're just going to exhaust yourself like you did the first time you tried."

"Sorry...I just wish I could just once." She smiled.

"Krystal you never needed to read my mind to know what I was thinking...you only ever needed to ask."

Krystal smiled, "Alright then what are you thinking right now?"

"How beautiful your eyes are..."

Krystal scoffed at the compliment as her cheeks began to burn, "Yeah...right."

"You can tell whether or not I'm lying." Fox replied.

Krystal looked into his eyes, and could instantly tell that he wasn't kidding...

"I was also asking myself how I could ever have been stupid enough to leave you. Even for one minute." Fox slid the empty plate away from his seat, "Well...I should get some sleep. Still got a day or two before Bill can make it here. Good night."

"Fox...wait." Krystal's voice caused him to stop at the door to the room.

Krystal stood from her seat and quickly made her way over to Fox wrapping her arms around him and to his surprise pressing her lips against his. At first Fox was a bit confused as her sudden affections seemed to take him surprise, but, after the fact sank into his head he pulled her closer to him deepening the kiss. He had missed these moments with her on more levels than she could have possibly imagined. They pulled away from one another all too soon for Fox's liking, and stared into each others eyes. For a moment Fox didn't know what to say, he hadn't really expected such a thing from her so suddenly. Then again they had become much closer over the passing weeks, she'd kissed him several times before, just not with as much passion as he'd felt this time...

"The hell was that for?" He asked with a smile.

"Being yourself..."

"If that's the case what do I get for being someone else?"

Krystal laughed, "Kicked in the balls for kissing me when you don't know me."

Fox could do little less than laugh as the two walked off into the halls toward their rooms. Fox took a short shower to clear the sweaty smell that clung to his fur before climbing into bed for the night, he found the rooms on the Nemesis to be dull and lacking of decore but, for the most part he found them no less decorated than the rooms on the Dark Star, with a bit of time they'd look much better...but then again what could he say about the ship really, he couldn't have found one for a better price. He lay there in his bed for over an hour but, sleep never found him, he was still thinking too heavily. On the other hand however Krystal had managed to get to sleep, but, her sleep was full of images that disturbed her to no end, especially the constant sights of a familiar black fox that she was certain died on Fichina. The thoughts and memories of what he'd done to the team kept her form getting back to sleep.

Fox still found no comfort of any kind, sitting on the edge of his bed, staring out the windows that covered the far wall of the captain's quarters, his mind cluttered with thoughts and worries about how all of this would play out. It was as he sat there that he heard the door to his room hiss open, gathering his attention to the blue vixen that now stood there clutching her pillow to her body...

"Can I sleep in here tonight..." She said with a bit of fear in her voice.

Fox smiled, she looked like a helpless kit that had just had a bad dream, "Of course you can."

Krystal climbed into the bed, and lay down Fox simply sat by and watched the poor thing drift off to sleep. He brushed a bit of the hair from her eyes before tucking the blankets in around her. Still unable to find any peace in sleep Fox looked back to the planet outside of his window, not able to help but wonder if sending Creed and Silver by themselves was the best idea...

* * *

**-Undisclosed Location-**

The blue fox sat by studying the spear that sat there in his paws, where were the other segments to the blade, it only he had the complete weapon there would be no animal in the world to stand in his way. As he thought about everything, that was happening he thought to himself as he entered his office...If Strider had only lived, he was Cornelius's best informant, though there was always something unsettling about the vulpine that Syler simply could not put his finger on. It was as he entered his office that he noticed his chair was facing away from his desk and there was clearly someone sitting in it. Syler quickly aimed the spear at the chair...

"You'd best have a good excuse for being in here." The Cerinian demanded.

"I am certain you would like to find the rest of the blade would you not?" An almost familiar voice asked.

"What do you know of the blade?" Syler asked in a rather stout tone.

The chair soon spun around showing Syler the face of a black fox that should have died on Fichina, "More than you could possibly know..."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the short chapter all...but, it happens. Anyhow some bad stuff's about to go down for the team and apparently Arlex or Strider whatever you wanna call him seems to know a great deal more about Krystal's staff than maybe anyone. Chapter 44 will bring about a new light to the conclusion of the story even though it is still a ways off. Hope you all enjoy. R&R and thanks for reading. Not to mention thanks for the tons of support....**

The footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox**  
**


	45. Chapter XLIV

**Chapter XLIV**

**(Nattix's Orbit 2 days later)**

Roxy rubbed her eyes as the rocking of the arwing hitting the planet's atmosphere woke her up, as she looked out of the cockpit she noticed that the planet they approached was pleasantly green in appearance, the ride down to the hanger they were set to land in seemed to take quite a bit of time. Silver followed Creed into the small city, it was different than the last few they'd seen; it was like Kew City, with large buildings that towered above the streets, the entire landscape however seemed to have a dark feel to it, as if the city itself was constantly hidden in the shadows. Creed was talking to a mechanic when Silver and Roxy climbed out of their ship, Roxy almost felt at home in such a place which was a bit sad considering the smell and taste in the air. That however wasn't the worst part as she felt a bit tipsy...

"Creed I feel kind of weird." She said laying her paw on her head.

"Atmospheric pressure here is kinda fucked up....makes the air in the biosphere pretty thin. Just take short normal breaths your body'll adjust." Creed replied, "How 'bout you Silver? You alright?"

"Hmm...I feel fine." The young fox replied.

"Well get your stuff. We may be here for a day or two...and Roxy, do NOT go out into the streets here alone." Creed said taking his bags from his the cargo bay of Maria's old ship, "Don Marx tries to keep the streets here as clean as possible, but even he can't control ever sicko and rapist out there...and this place is pretty fucking thick with both. Especially stay away from anyone wearing a read hood."

"Why is that? Horrible fashion sense?" Roxy asked.

"No...they're cultists. Sadists to be more exact...they'll sacrifice just about any pretty thing they can get their claws into so stay close to one of us at all times. A lot of young girls come up missing around here."

After Creed's little pep talk, Roxy refused to put any more than two feet of distance between Silver and herself as they all walked along the streets. For the most part the streets weren't all that bad, the people seemed relatively normal for the most part. The city was not the largest they'd ever seen but, it was still fairly big. After about two hours of walking Creed pointed out a small building where they were headed, the three made it inside of the small building only to find that it was a refurbished hotel...most likely used by the mob itself as, unlike the other buildings around, it was nicely fixed up, with fresh carpet and new paint on the walls. The outside belied the inside, where the outside made it look like every other building in the city the inside was remarkably pleasant. There was a young cheetah girl sitting behind a desk who sighed with boredom. Even Roxy noticed how well endowed this young cat was, even despite her large golden eyes and rather well taken care of long black hair...

Creed looked over his shoulder, "Don't stare. She doesn't like it when people stare."

After a moment the young cat looked up from her desk with a bored sigh only to notice the crimson furred fox, "CREED!!" She shouted jumping over the desk and rushing over to hug the huge fox, "God I haven't seen you in forever! Where's Kursed? And where did your old arms go?"

Creed chucked as he embraced the young cheetah, "Whoa there...one question at a time Jane. Is the Don in?"

"No...daddy's out right now. There's been some trouble on the south side that he needed to check into." She said pulling him off to the side, "Listen you need to stay low while you're around here. There have been these guys around looking for you and Kursed...they say they're just bounty hunters after the ones that killed McCloud but...it's weird they're carrying Omni Corp weapons, and they all have the logo on them."

Creed looked back to Silver and Roxy who were quietly chatting with one another then back to Jane, "How many have you seen?"

"About 20 maybe 30 they're hard to keep track of. Are they why you're here?"

Creed sighed, "Listen there's......well...some serious shit going down in Lylat right now, and sadly enough Kay and I are caught right in the middle of it and so is McCloud and those two." He said tilting his head toward the bunny and fox standing by her desk, "Don't ask any questions yet. I'll just say that rumors of McCloud's death have been greatly exaggerated. When it Alex due back here?"

"Well daddy said he'd be gone for about two days...and that was yesterday so he should be back either tonight or tomorrow."

"Good...you think you can spare a couple of rooms?"

Jane smiled at the thought, "I told you before Creed you're welcome here anytime you want. You gonna join me for dinner this time?"

Creed chuckled, "I seriously doubt this is the right time for that Jane."

The cheetah pulled on the front of his shirt a bit, "Really? Then how about breakfast?" She asked in a rather seductive tone.

"Boy." Creed laughed a bit, "Is it get'n hot in here?" He replied jokingly, "You're not really ever gonna give up on that are you?"

"I never give up once I see something I want...you know that." Jane replied with a light smile, "I just don't have Joey's way of going about getting it."

"I'm happy for that..." Creed replied, "Otherwise you'd have me tied up and at gunpoint right now."

Jane looked lost in thought for a moment, "Mmmm...sounds kinky." She said with a joking smile.

"Okay now that's enough of that." Creed retorted as her tone had made him happy his fur was so bright red.

"Oh come on..." Jane replied, "Where's your sense of humor?"

Creed began to lead the others upstairs after receiving their keys, "I killed him..." He called back, "And my conscience is next!" He finished in a joking tone.

"She seems pretty sweet on you Creed." Roxy smiled.

Creed pointed a large finger at the pink rabbit, "Don't."

"Don't what?" She laughed a bit as they waited for the elevator.

"Just don't." Creed said, "She's bad enough as it is."

"So then what's the problem? She's pretty..." Roxy said, "And has the biggest set I've ever seen."

As the elevator reached their floor Creed, Silver, and Roxy stepped aboard, "It's complicated..."

The rooms in the place were well taken care of, Creed could always say that about Jane she like the place to be clean...despite the rather unclean people that often stayed there. The rooms were of an average size for a motel, more than room enough for two people per room...it was a bit cramped with three in there though. The little room only consisted of a small kitchenette, a bed that seemed like it'd have a problem supporting someone Creed's size, one window near a table, and a small bathroom that was looked like it would be difficult to get dressed in after a shower. After using the bathroom Roxy sat down at the small table at the far side of the room...

"Wow...I'm not so sure you could fully take a shower in there Creed. That bathroom is barely big enough for me how would you get dressed in there?"

Creed sighed tossing her a small key, "I won't...I'll get dressed in here. Your room is next door."

"Oh...alright then." Roxy said leaving the room.

"I thought you didn't want Roxy to be alone while we're in the city." Silver said.

"She's not gonna be. I need some time to think. She's your girl...You can stay over there with her." Creed replied.

Silver didn't understand what he meant when he said 'your girl' but, it didn't matter he was more than happy to be close to Roxy for the rest of their trip. Roxy didn't seem to have any particular problems with it either. The day trudged on rather slowly, there was absolutely nothing to do, Silver seemed to take this all in stride but, Roxy seemed like she was going to loose her mind as she was to the point of laying on the small bed counting the small bumps on the ceiling. Silver simply sat there at this room's table looking out the small window into the city. He was amazed at how people lived in such places, there seemed to be no point in it to him...people in the cities he'd visited so far had all of the same problems; rapists, murderers, gang members, it was all the same story no matter where he went, it seemed the only safe place he'd been so far...was on Fox's ship...and even the ship wasn't always so safe. Was there really a place where he would never have to worry about Roxy's safety? From what he'd seen so far he didn't really think so, the thought kind of depressed him. As he sat there thinking he felt Roxy lean against his back with her arms around his neck, something she'd done several times before...

"Something wrong Silver?" She asked noticing the deeply contemplative look on his face.

"Everywhere I've gone since getting away from Omni...I've seen nothing but the same stuff. People living in places like this, where they have to hide from people that want to do nothing but hurt them. I read everything about the history of civilization only to learn that there is nothing civilized about any of it. Why do people like Fox fight so desperately to protect something that thrives toward destroying itself? I keep trying to understand it but......I just can't."

Roxy laughed a bit, "Silver it's no great matter why Fox fights. He just feels it's something that he has to do...not for himself but for the hope that some day people won't have to hide anymore. I think mostly he fights for Krystal...to make sure he never has to worry about her. It's for hope Silver...hope of protecting something...Isn't there something that you would want to protect no matter what?"

Silver seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, "I know what you mean...but, isn't the fighting pointless if all of this can't be brought to an end? What's the point in fighting a loosing battle?"

"Silver you just don't understand. It's not winning the fight that's the point...it's fighting it. It's being one of the few people out there with the balls to stand up to something bigger than themselves."

Before he could react to what she'd said Silver found Roxy sitting on his lap facing him with a light smile on her face. Her eyes seemed to have no end to them, everything she'd said seemed so simple...but at the same time it bore further into his head. Silver had never had such compounded thoughts before. As he looked into Roxy's eyes for some reason he couldn't help but to smile...she truly believed in what she had said. He found her thoughts to be slightly infections, she had asked if there was anything that he really wanted to protect, and there was. She was staring him right in the face at that very moment. Before Roxy could react this time she found herself in a warm embrace as their muzzles met causing Roxy to close her eyes. Silver and Roxy had kissed several times before, but none of them had lasted nearly as long. It was after they pulled away from one another that Silver felt like saying something else...

"You..."

Roxy smiled, "What?"

"I want to protect you."

* * *

**(Meanwhile in Creed's room)**

Creed was simply waiting for the time to pass so that he could get his mission done without running into any problems with the Omni men that Jane had warned him about. His main thoughts however were of whether or not it was a good idea to leave Fox and the others alone, sure they had a massive battleship now but, that wouldn't stop Omni from sending in fighters or possibly even Syler himself. Unfortunately his thoughts still often wandered back to Maria, her death was constantly on his mind ever since it had happened...he still couldn't rightfully blame Angel for what she'd done rather he blamed himself, it was his own fault that everything had gone as far as it had. He had thought that settling things with Maria would calm his thoughts but, instead it had only compounded matters far worse than they were before...now he had the guilt of her death on his paws. Creed's entire time since then had been of trying to somehow make the guilt go away but, the more he thought about it the more he blamed himself...he was so happy to hear the knock at the door of his room, that interrupted his thoughts. He opened the door to see Jane's friendly smiling face...

"Daddy's back...said they wrapped things up early. He really wants to see you." The young feline said.

"Good...Let me tell the others. Then lead the way."

Creed made sure to inform the Silver and Roxy that he wouldn't be in his room for a short while as he would be meeting with the Don. They didn't seem to care as they seemed to be hooked on each other at the time. Creed and Jane made their way to the elevator and then headed to the top floor where the feline's father stayed. The elevator ride felt like it took forever, he could feel the cheetah girl's eyes scaling about his body...no girl had paid that kind of attention to him since he had been with Maria, and oddly enough he found that he sort of missed the feeling...thought he didn't like the idea of one of his closest friend's daughters sizing him up. As the elevator stopped Creed stepped forward only to feel a tug at the end of his tail...

"That was uncalled for." He said instantly shooting around pointing at Jane who only responded with an innocent smile.

"You should get going daddy's waiting for you."

After a short walk down the halls Creed found his way to a large door stood guard on either side by a large stallion. The one on the left a rather large, well build black stallion named Tony, he was a pretty close friend to the Don and because of it a trusted friend of Creed's...the speckled brown and white horse however on the right was a recent new face, and his build was much less than Tony's...

"How's the wife and kids Tony?" Creed asked shaking the black stallion's large hand.

"Can't complain. What happened to your arms? Last I saw they were all metal."

"It's just a synthetic something-or-other over the metal. Who's the new kid?" Creed asked looking tot he palomino on the right side of the door.

"Name's Tyke...have no idea where the Don found him, but, he's a mute."

As Creed looked over to Tyke mouthed the word 'hi' while raising his palm...

"Nice ta meet'cha kid." Creed said shaking his hand.

"Don Marx said to let you in as soon as you came up so go on ahead." Tony said pushing the door open.

Creed of course simply walked into a rather elaborately decorated room that was normally full of light and decorations such as hanging tapestries and pictures on the walls...but the whole room now had a slight somber feel to it, and an unmistakably familiar sent, that of someone on the verge of death. There before him sat a rather heavy set cheetah with s bit darker fur than his youngest daughter's. At the moment the older animal had a weak smile on his face and a small clear tube ran from a small machine to his nose...

"Alex?" Creed asked as he walked in, "My god you look like shit."

The old cat laughed a bit before breaking into a fit of coughs, "You'd look like shit too. If you were on your last leg boy. Cancer...all those years of smoking apparently."

"I'm....sorry to hear that Alex." Creed said sitting down in front of the old cat.

"Jane tells me that there's something you need from me..." The Don said shifting a bit in his large chair, "Tell me. Is that girl still giving you a hard time."

"Yeah..." Creed laughed, "but all in all, it's kinda flattering."

The old cat chuckled a bit, "I wish younger girls were after me when I was your age. Now what did you need help with?"

"Kursed and I need you to stop all the sales of Omni Corp arms and supplies anything from that company needs to be stopped."

"Creed...I am willing to do anything to help you after saving Mina from The Scarlet Paw, but you'd have to have an absurdly good reason for me to close off all of their sales when they bring in more money to this planet than anyone else."

Creed sighed deeply, "I hope you're ready to hear one hell of a story."

Creed took all the time he needed to inform The Don of everything that had happened over the course of the past month or so, making certain to leave McCloud's name out of it. The cat seemed fairly disturbed by what he was hearing, he had not heard of the war between Katina and Corneria and definitely had not heard anything about Omni. As the story went on The Don's expression became more and more serious until the end of the story which landed Creed where he was now sitting...

"Hmm...so the staff is some sort of super weapon that Omni is after and they started the war to keep Corneria and Katina occupied while they man some sort of intergalactic take over?" The cat recapped.

"That's about the most of it yeah." Creed replied.

"I will do what you ask on one condition..." The Don said.

"Alex there are no conditions. You know if you need something you only need to ask." Creed replied.

"Good...then get Jane out of here. The doctors gave me a little more than a week...and I don't want her hanging around this shit heap when I'm gone. A week is more than enough for me to get all of this sorted out. Omni won't even know what's going on before it's too late." Alex said, "You know that I only ask you this because if you ask her to go with you she will go...I don't want her ending up like the others, Mina got herself out of here after marrying Daniel. Jane is the only one I have to worry about anymore."

"No problem Alex...if that's what you want I'll get Jane away from this place. We should be leaving tomorrow."

After a while Silver and Roxy had decided that it was safe to venture out to find something to eat, they left a message with Jane before leaving the motel. She had informed them that the Omni men she had talked about were nowhere to be seen, and even pointed out a nice place to get a bite to eat just down the street. Roxy spent the most of their time with her arm locked around Silver's as they walked, Silver had gotten used to being close to her but in certain situations it still made him feel a bit uncomfortable. As they walked Silver stopped at a small stand as Roxy examined the surroundings. Roxy jumped with a start as a set of paws dropped something around her neck only to let out a sigh of relief as she realized that it was only Silver. As she looked to the small thing around her neck she noticed a small heart shaped pendant the entire thing seemingly made of gold with three small red gems along the bottom of the heart. As she looked to the small golden heart she turned throwing her arms around the silver vulpine's neck kissing him rather deeply...it was the reaction that he'd hoped for...Silver was still new at it but, he liked it for the most part, he didn't know how to explain it but, it gave him a warm feeling that he was becoming rather fond of. It wasn't long before they found the small place that Jane had spoken of; just a little shack that you sat in front of while the person inside served your food at a small counter. They sat there and eat the small meal that they ordered before they finally headed back to the motel. As they approached the motel door however Creed walked out...

"Good you're both back." He said, "Look the Don agreed to help...but, only if I promised to take Jane with us when we leave."

Creed and Silver turned to face the door for a moment, "I'm sure Fox won't have a problem with that. Right Rox......" Silver cut himself off as he turned around to face the bunny only to realize that she was gone, "Roxy? Roxy....ROXY!!!"

"Shit..." Creed half shouted rushing a forward a bit before pulling something out of the snow, holding up Roxy's pendant, "This look familiar to you?"

Silver took the necklace form Creed, "I just bought that for Roxy."

Just then there was a familiar scream from near from a short ways down the street, "Creed did you hear that?"

"Yeah come on it came from over here!"

It wasn't long before Creed turned into a small alley. The alley led out into another street where Silver rushed over to a familiar looking shoe laying on the steps of what looked like an old church...

"Not this fucking place again." Creed said with a sigh as they stood before the doors.

"What do you mean again?" Silver asked.

"Well you remember those Sadists I warned you about when we landed?" Creed asked receiving a positive nod, "Well the first time Krystal and I came here we saved Mina...that's Jane's older sister...from this place. And speak of the devil..." Creed said as he noticed a familiar looking animal in a red cloak walking their direction, "Hold back for a second."

As the cloaked figure walked by a savage force swung him, screaming, around the corner against a nearby wall where Creed pulled the animal's hood away, revealing the face of a gray furred tabby. Who seemed to know Creed well enough as he broke into a fit of screams attempting to rip himself free of the monstrous vulpine's grip...

"You got two seconds to stop screaming before your face becomes a part of that wall behind you." Creed said calmly, "Where's the pink rabbit? And don't tell me you don't know. Last time you lied to me my partner shot you in the ass...I won't be so polite and neither will he."

"Hyden has her inside..." The frightened animal stuttered.

"Well your luck kind of ran out this time pal..." Creed said tightening his grip around the animal's neck, "This time you actually had to go as far as to take a friend of mine. So say hello to that dark overlord of yours or whatever the fuck you wanna call him."

The animal struggled for a brief moment attempting to claw at Creed's face as the grip a round his throat forced blood to rush from the cat's nose and mouth. Creed simply watched as the tabby's frantic attempts at escape dwindled away with the disgusting sounds that he made as his eyes bugged out horribly, Creed decided that this one needed to suffer or he would have simply crushed his neck rather than allowing him to suffocate under his grip before tossing the body quite easily with a single paw into a nearby dumpster with the rest of the city's trash. Creed began to head toward the small church before he noticed a silver streak rushing by, Creed attempted to stop him but Silver was simply moving at a speed that Creed could only dream of before leaping into the air smashing through what was most likely once a lovely stained glass window. Creed rolled his eyes and he rushed toward the doors of the old chapel...he was hoping that he'd be able to get this done without much of a ruckus, then again when had anything ever been easy for him in the most recent years?

From the inside of the small chapel all was silent until the small window several feet above the door exploded inward sending a small Silver fox into the room who landed in the center isle between two ruined sets of wooden pews. There was a large alter set up where there would have once been a podium. The altar seemed to throw off the feel of the entire place, as there were red tapestries and cloths everywhere. Red candles burned around the small table like altar where a familiar bunny lay unconscious. A lone figure stood behind the altar in a red cloak just like the tabby that lay in that dumpster in the alley, this one however was much taller than the cat, and seemed to hold what looked like a large ceremonial staff in his paw making it stand up beside him, from beneath the hood several dreadlocks dangled about. He seemed a bit disappointed at the sight of the Silver fox before him even though he knew nothing about the power behind the dark red eyes that stared straight through him...

"You are not the one I was hoping for."

Just then the doors burst open one being torn from it's hinges as Creed's massive body checked into them, "Ah there you are. We owe you much for what you did to our little order...I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever come back. The pink one stays...and you die."

Creed noticed the look on Silver's face as the young fox bared his fangs at the one in the red hood, "Looks like you gotta deal with her little boyfriend here first. Form what I've heard I don't envy you right now pal."

"If the boy wishes to die who am I to deny his infernal majesty the blood that he offers up so willingly. I will end him and then take revenge for my followers that you and your blue harlot killed." The strange animal said pulling on the head of his staff producing a long double edged blade.

The weapon he now held was rather long, the handle in the shape of a reversed crucifix with a circle around the center of it. The animal removed his hood with his free paw a light brown furred coyote beneath wore a sinister grin that bared half of his fangs, blood trailed down his face where he had carved three 6s into his forehead, most likely with his own claws. Though Silver had never seen anything so sadistic he was clearly not in his right mind, as the fox made no movements. Even as the canine before him allowed his cloak to fall from his deceptively muscular form; Creed was impressed at how fast the coyote shot from his spot bringing his weapon down at Silver, but the fox once again didn't move. As Creed looked on the blade impacted the ground mere centimeters from splitting the young vulpine in half. A scare tactic. Unfortunately for the brown canine in his current state of mind Silver had no cares for the concept of fear. The young fox bore an equally sadistic smile as he leaped forward driving his shoulder into the coyote's chest, the impact sending him up and over Roxy's body. Noticing this the insane animal brought his weapon down as he descended cleaving everything in his path in two causing a huge cloud of dust to cover the area. For a moment Creed thought the worst before he noticed that two forms were standing in the middle of the dust as it cleared. He had been told by Fox just how unbelievable it was to see Silver fight, but he'd never imagined the animal could move so fast, before the blade had contacted the rabbit that lay there Silver already had her in his arms and was a safe distance from the altar. As Silver narrowly dodged one attack after another he quickly turned tossing the limp bunny into the air in Creed's direction who managed to catch her quite easily. It was as Creed watched the fight escalate that he smelled a familiar scent of scorching wood, the candles had been knocked over and had begun to eat away at the old building's dry wood...now matters had become a lot more complicated...

* * *

**(Undisclosed Location)**

Syler was still sitting there going over the odd proposal that he'd received from Arlex, the animal had offered him all of the knowledge of the staff and it's true purpose but, only if Syler swore to bring him some strange cylinder that Fox and the others had. It was as he sat there at his desk staring at the spear that was once Krystal's staff that a small device sounded from his desk, he quickly pressed a button...

"What's going on!?!" He demanded.

"Sir..." A female scientist called back, "It's Number-13! His primary defense systems just peaked at 20 percent."

"Can you track it?!" Syler asked quickly.

"No something has happened to his tracking device...I believe Camile may have deactivated it."

Syler scratched his chin, "Amazing...he was only programed to reach 5 percent of his full power...I wonder." He thought to himself. "Keep the monitor going I want all the information that you can get off of this! I feel sorry for whoever has pushed him this far."

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**A/N: Yay! Writer's block gone^_^**

** Sorry the update took so damn long but, it couldn't be helped...Well chapter 44 is up. Sorry if it's less than what you'd expect. But on a brighter not the next chapter is almost nothing but action from the get go so...45 may be short but trust me when I say 'there will be blood'. And yes for any of you paying attention...when Silver killed Danzig he was only fighting at 5 percent of his maximum efficiancy. Well Thanks for the support I'm happy I could finally start work on this hing again and I hope you enjoyed the chapter R&R and I'll see you all next time....**

** The footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox**


	46. Chapter XLV

**A/N: Sorry if this one is a bit short...I'm working up on another really long one so ...bare with me here. Hope you all enjoy the chapter....

* * *

**

**Chapter XLV**

Creed quickly made his way out of the burning building with Roxy's limp body still in his arms, he needed to put her somewhere safe, and the church was about to become anything but safe. Unfortunately as he rounded the corner of the alley they'd come in through a small group of men dressed in that manner Jane had warned them about...they were clearly from Omni. Creed set Roxy down against a nearby wall and took a rather aggressive fighting stance...

"Lets make this quick."

Silver slid across the floor of the church after receiving a deceptively powerful kick to the chest...he couldn't put his finger on it but for some reason this animal was much stronger than usual. The enraged young fox leaped back at the wolf narrowly dodging a swipe from the large sword in his paws, the blade proved it's edge as it tore a nearby pew in half. As the fight raged so to did the flames that ate away at the small church's stability, they had grown substantially, engulfing the building's far wall. The wolf came back with a furious flurry of blow each seeming to gain in speed and ferocity as if the blade itself had become bloodthirsty. As a particularly close swipe drove the tip of the blade across Silver's chest the vulpine kicked the weapon from the animal's arm which spun into the air lodging it's blade into the ceiling. In a moment of shock the lupine dropped his guard...bad idea. Silver bolted forward driving his knee into the wolf's gut with enough force to send him into the first row of pews which seemed to explode into a mass of fragments from the force of the moving body, the wolf managed to roll out of the way as Silver's body fell from what seemed like the heavens stomping on the spot where the animal's chest once was, it was clearly a lethal strike at the impact had driven Silver's leg knee deep into the wooden floor. The wolf's counterattack was instantaneous, from his current position on his knees he delivered a powerful kick to the fox's knee causing Silver's right leg to buckle beneath him, after which the wolf took Silver by the arm launching him across the room. Silver managed to shift his body weight in mid flight landing his feet against the far wall he was thrown at before springing back off of it with immense force that even cracked some of the wall's supports. The wolf was not ready for such a quick retaliation however, the torpedo like fox flew into the wolf's body with great force dragging them both to the ground causing them to slam into the floor uplifting floorboards as they slid across the floor. Silver, being on his back at the time, took the wolf by the shoulders and placed his feet to the animal's chest rolling onto the back of his neck and pushing off with his feet sending the wolf plowing into and through a row of pews, dashing the poor creature through a nearby window...Silver of course pursued the wolf leaping out into the streets himself. Outside the streets had become remarkably dark as the light of day had vanished some time ago, this was no matter however as Silver rushed forward after the wolf that stood in the middle of the street waiting for him. The attacks coming from each animal were both incredibly powerful, until one attack in particular sent Silver sailing through the air into the wall of a stone building leaving a rather large crater in the wall's surface roughly twice the vulpine's size...

Creed stood nearby shaking the blood from his arms and inspecting a bulltet wound in his abdomen when he realized that despite Silver's repeated, bone shattering strikes the wolf simply would not go down...

"Is this guy possessed or something?" Creed asked himself looking back onto the ally who's walls were now drenched in the blood of the soldiers that had attacked him. Of the original six there were four complete bodies, three that lay near the dumpster where the cat still festered, and another several floors up hanging partially from a window, "I hope this kid wraps this up soon."

Silver shot toward the wolf with a blaze of speed causing the wolf to leap over him, however the fox turned into a half side back flip driving a foot into the wolf's spine, which sent him sprawling into a nearby dumpster leaving the front of the large receptacle massively defaced. The wolf shook his head a bit just before rolling out of the way of a discus like object that tore the dumpster from it's place slamming it into the wall that Silver was smashed into earlier. Now buried in the wall, was a manhole cover that had plowed completely through the metal container. The attacks came again however as the wolf jolted forward a type of low flying clothesline taking the fox's legs out from under him, as Silver was airborne however the fox recovered. Silver shifted his weight once again placing his paws on the wolf's shoulders into a perfect handstand before twisting completely around snapping the wolf's neck between his arms. Before the wolf could fall of his own free will however the fox finished by allowing his body to fall back toward the ground kicking the wolf's knees out and pulling the animal's back against his own, the sound of the wolf's shattered spine could be heard echoing through the alley and streets. Creed noticing that the fight was over rushed out to the silver fox to check on him lifting the animal to his feet. Silver could hear the echo of Creed's voice, but his vision was gone and before the young fox could say anything he fell limp into the massive red vulpine's arms. It was as creed draped the unconscious little fox over his shoulder that he noticed a small green phial that fell from the wolf's pocket. Creed reached down and picked up the familiar looking thing...the word 'HYPE' was printed in the side of the small glass tube...

"Well...that explains a lot." He said tucking the small thing into his pocked, "Come on kid. Lets get the two of you out of here before someone starts asking questions."

* * *

**(The Nemesis: Bridge)**

**(2 hours later)**

Krystal had only just taken a shower, she had wanted to speak with Fox about her concerns for the others so she headed to the bridge after finding that he was not in his quarters. Her thoughts had pretty much been everywhere the past few days; she often wondered where this fight against Omni was really going, how the Cerinians were adjusting to life on Sauria, but most of all about the constant nightmares that she'd been having about Arlex. As she walked through the lonely halls of the massive ship Krystal's train of thought was interrupted by several voices from the bridge. Unfortunately as soon as she entered the large room there was only a lonesome reddish-brown fox sitting in the captain's seat, but one of the voices from earlier was more than familiar even through the doors to the bridge...

"Was that Creed?" She quickly asked as she approached the side of the chair, "Are they alright?"

"Yeah. He said they're fine...well sort of. Apparently Roxy got into a bit of trouble and now there's this huge fire that's taking a bit of time and recourses to put out."

"Pfft...What's the bad news?" Krystal asked sarcastically.

"I think that was the bad news. We have Don Marx's help, but he had a condition." Fox informed her, "He made Creed promise to bring someone named Jane with him since he's kinda on his last leg."

As heard this she smiled and took her seat on Fox's lap, dropping down a bit too hard for his liking, "That figures...he always wanted Creed see something in her." The blue vixen chuckled, "She has the cutest crush on Creed."

"You know usually at this hour you're already in bed." Fox said petting her head.

"Mmhm...I've been having a bit of trouble sleeping. A lot of nightmares..."

"The same ones?" Fox asked.

"They've been like that since before Bill called and told you he'd be held up until tomorrow." Krystal replied, "So about three or four days now." She said with a yawn.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Fox asked.

Krystal nuzzled her head under Fox's chin, "Just.......sit here for a while."

Fox didn't bother to say anything, he simply did as she had asked an sat there, enjoying her sent and warmth as her breathing began to grow light showing him that she'd fallen asleep. He shifted a bit as her position with her legs hanging over the arm of the seat was causing his legs to feel numb, this caused the blue vixen to whimper a bit in her sleep more tightly squeezing her arms around him and pushing her muzzle against his chin a bit. He had no idea she was having so much trouble getting any sleep, she'd only really told him about it once but, she had passed it off as if it were just common dreams...realizing that she must have been very troubled by them Fox simply pulled her a bit closer to him and leaned back in the chair slowly letting her presence draw him as well into a rather deep sleep. His last thoughts not of his friends of whom he constantly worried about, but rather the vixen in his arms. The hours passed as they often do when one sleeps, like moments, as soon as Fox's eyes fluttered open he groaned a bit, his back and legs were both killing him, he wasn't used to sleeping in the seated position he was in...

He took a moment to rub his eyes, "MIA...time..." He said making sure he didn't wake Krystal.

"Current galactic standard time is...8:06 am."

Fox managed to stand up without waking the angel in his arms, as he made his way out of the bridge Vixy nearly bumped into him. She sort of smiled as Fox walked by carrying Krystal off toward her room. Fox made certain she was still asleep before leaving her in her room, his first stop of the morning being the kitchen as he felt he seriously needed a cup of coffee. Luckily he found he didn't really need to be back to the bridge anytime soon as he was certain his mother would be more than happy to answer any calls that came through. Fox spent most of his morning in the kitchen looking out at the planet below, Sauria looked more beautiful ever time he saw it. He was a bit worried about the Cerinians as well. He decided that after everyone was awake that he'd head down to the surface. It was as he stood there that his mother's voice came through the PA system...

"Fox...Bill just called. He says he's on his way...he should be here by tomorrow."

Fox sighed, it was the best news he'd heard all week, "Good. If Creed calls in tell them to just hurry back. I've had a bad feeling about things for a few days. Krystal's nightmares are only making things worse..." He said finishing the last sentence to himself.

"Don't worry Fox...I'll tell them."

"Also if anyone needs to talk to me later...I'm going to the surface to check on Julius and the Cerinians later."

* * *

**(Meanwhile on Nattix)**

Creed was a bit upset to learn that his small group would have to wait before they took off, just to be safe of any Omni troops still being around. It was as he sat there in his room, where he'd decided to lay Roxy and Silver in his bed, he stared at the small phial of greed liquid that sat in front of him on the table. A few moments later there was a light knock on the door before it opened leaving Jane standing there with a small suitcase in each paw. She looked a bit sad, as opposed to her normally energetic and upbeat demeanor...Creed could only tell that The Don had finally told her the truth...

"Hey...you gonna be alright?" Creed asked as Jane took a seat across from him.

"Yeah. I think so...I really should have seen it coming. He's been getting worse for weeks, he can barely keep his breath and talk at the same time anymore."

Creed sighed a bit, he really didn't like seeing his friends in this state, "There any way I can help."

A few rather uncouth jokes entered the young cat's mind but she disregarded them, "No...but, thank you. Just something we all have to face sometime I guess."

"Yeah but, that's the great thing about having friends...we never have to face these things alone...right?"

The young cheetah wiped a way a tear as she chuckled a bit, "So...what is that?" She asked clearly trying to change the subject by pointing out the small glass tube on the table.

"It's called HYPE." Creed said rolling it to her, "It's basically a drug. Hyperaccelerates the Adrenal gland. You're under the effect of that stuff, you know no such thing as pain or fear, you could display supernatural strength, and at times it'll drive you completely out of your mind with hallucinations."

"This isn't yours is it?" Jane asked a bit concerned.

Creed laughed placing a paw on his bicep, "Why would I need HYPE with these things?" He laughed, "I found it on that sadist bastard that Silver took out...sure as hell dose explain why it took so long for him to go down."

"Daddy said that the fire was put out about a half hour ago. We can leave any time you want...but I think those two need to be awake first." Jane said looking to the sleeping fox and rabbit in Creed's bed, "They're really cute when they're huddled together like that." She said with a light smile. Jane took a short glance over her shoulder, "Give ya any ideas?"

Creed rolled his eyes with a heavy sigh, "There's the Jane I know. Just make sure you're ready...cuz once they wake up we are get'n the fuck outta here."

A light groan from across the room caught the two's attention as the silver fox on the bed slowly sat up with a paw on the side of his head; he had a horrible headache, his vision was blurred and his body felt as if every inch of him was bruised. He shook his head a bit and squinted as his eyes attempted to focus to the light in the room...

"What happened? Why am I in bed?" He asked wincing a bit as his ribs hurt quite a bit.

Creed looked to Jane then back to Silver, "You tell'n me you can't remember anything from last night?"

Silver thought back as hard as he could, "I---I remember buying something for Roxy...and...I don't know everything just faded." Silver looked to the sleeping pink bunny brushing a bit of hair from her face, "Did I......do something...bad?"

"No Silver...you did something very good last night. You saved her life...probably a lot of other lives too." Creed said getting to his feet, "Anyway. Your bags are right here I'll carry 'em to the ships. Grab your bunny and lets get the hell outta here. She doesn't need to be awake for us to leave...and I don't want any more attention from Omni than we already have, last thing we want is them following us to Sauria."

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**A/N: Well thanks for the support as always. Hope you enjoyed it. R&R and I'll see you all around next time for chapter 46. Later...^_^**

**The footsteps in the darknss- SkullFox  
**


	47. Chapter XLVI

**Chapter XLVI**

(Sauria: Thorntail Hollow)

Though a bit hesitant to do so Krystal was the only one to go with Fox as she seemed rather worried about her people. Though she seemed to still be a bit angry about their ways of marking the fox she loved as an outsider, despite the fact that he'd most likely saved every one of their lives, she couldn't help but to worry about them...they were after all the last of her kind.. Her and Fox took their time getting to the surface as they were in not big rush to be ignored by the Cerinians, but, there was minor consolation in the matter...at least Julius was there. As their ships passed into the small blue planet's atmosphere Krystal's com system opened up with a picture of Fox...

"You think they'll be alright down here?" He asked.

"I'm sure they're all fine. I still can't help but to worry about them though..." Krystal replied.

"Well that's natural...they are the last of the Cerinians." Fox said, "Hopefully Sauria will be a place where they can get a fresh start....you know....give the race a second chance."

Krystal smiled at the green eyed fox, "I guess everyone does deserve a second chance."

"And I'm really glad you gave me mine." Fox smiled back, "Well we're about to land...see you on the surface."

"Bye Fox."

A few minutes after their transmission had ended the two arwings touched down, practically in the same spot Fox had landed in the first time he'd ever come to the planet. Fox soon leaped out of his arwing and helped Krystal step out of her own, though she really didn't need the help, she did accept as it was a very nice gesture. Fox seemed confused, the entire place had seemingly been taken over by small wooden huts, they looked rather well held together, small domes of wood with large flaps of cloth over their otherwise opened doorways. Krystal was well aware of what they were, after all she'd grown up in on of these small dwellings on Cerinia. It was as the two looked over the small settlement that Fox's ear twitched toward a light sound behind him, it was nearly inaudible but, Krystal had heard the sound as well. Both vulpine instantly shot around at the sound with their blasters drawn into the face of a familiar light brown furred wolf...

"Wow..." Julius replied, "This is the second most guns ever pointed at me. I guess Kaina's lessons aren't paying off as well as I thought."

It was as the lupine stood there that Fox noticed he was dressed remarkably similar to the way Krystal was the first time they'd met, "Julius? Why in the hell are you wearing that?" He asked.

"Oh...um...that's a little hard to explain."

As he said this a blue vixen seemed to appear out of nowhere, she seemed a bit different in her reaction toward Julius than they would have expected as she walked around behind him, her tail brushing against his legs for a moment causing the wolf to smile a bit before she reached his left side where the two exchanged a quick kiss..

"Well...maybe not too hard." Julius said as his face developed an intense red shine. The vixen whispered something into the wolf's ear, "Oh right...Um...I'm not sure if the two of you are ready for this but, someone wants to see you. Especially Krystal."

Fox shrugged his shoulders, "Lead the way lover boy."

Julius and the blue vixen seemed to have a slight problem becoming separable as the two seemed to tug at each other's fur and carry on as if Fox and Krystal weren't even there, for the most part Fox didn't mind, at least one other Cerinian didn't care who was from where. Soon the four approached a rather large tent that was set up just off to the west of the old Sharpclaw Hag's shop. As they approached the door, Julius's friend began tugging on his arm in the opposite direction...

"Sorry I can't stay. Kaina says I need more practice if I can't even sneak up the two of you."

Krystal laughed a bit, "You should watch yourself Julius. Cerinian girls are a lot tougher than most girls you find in Lylat."

"I don't mind...tough or not she's a good teacher..." The wolf said with a wink, "Not only that...she's smart as hell...and gorgeous to boot."

Fox chuckled, "I'll talk to you later Jules...and watch yourself...Cerinian girls can get a little aggressive." He said nudging Krystal with his elbow, resulting in the vixen punching him in the arm, "See what I mean?"

"It was great seeing you two again!" Julius yelled to them as the young blue vixen seemed to half drag him off.

Fox laughed a bit as he looked to Krystal, "I really didn't see that coming did you?"

Krystal rolled her eyes at Fox before entering the tent with the Fox just behind her. The tent had almost no light at all, but that didn't seem to matter as Krystal could almost sense a certain presence in the dark room. It was as they entered the center of the hut that Krystal's eyes fixated on something. An old, thin, sickly looking male Cerinian sat cross legged on a small mat with a large blanket folded over his shoulders, his eyes were clouded over with blindness. Krystal's eyes watered over as she stepped up to the figure running her paw against his face...

"Father? How....how is this possible? I watched you die on Cerinia."

"I am sorry for not coming forward before. I did not want you to see me like this...in this weakened state." The old one said as he wrapped his arms around the young vixen drawing her close to him, "I am sorry......for everything. You were right when you said that we were too stubborn in our ways, that is why....I wish you to lead our people. I am dying Krystal. I....I have been for years. The ones that took us found me...and kept me alive much longer than I wished for. They even took my eyes when I refused to talk. I have missed you so much child." The old man released Krystal and turned his attention to the fox standing before him, "And you....must be this Fox McCloud that Voss has told me so much about. I thank you for having his body returned to us..."

"He deserved to be with his people....he saved my life."

"You are the one so luck to win this stubborn girl's heart?" He said with a light smile, "I am happy that you have finally found someone Krystal...the son of the first outsider to stumble into our society. I remember the man James McCloud...he was a fine warrior as well. If not for our ways, perhaps he could have been....something more to the tribe than a simple outsider. I apologize dearly for pushing him and your mother away."

"How do you know all of this?" Fox asked.

"I knew your father rather well......we welcomed him to stay with us until he met your mother. I am afraid our tribe has always had a grim outlook on mating with outsiders." The old Cerinian extended his paw, "You love my daughter...correct?"

Fox shifted his look to Krystal and back to the old one, "More than life itself...I would do anything for her." Fox replied.

"Then give me your paw..."

Fox hesitated and looked to Krystal who simply shrugged her shoulders, she had no idea what was going on. Ignoring the fact that he had no idea what the old fox was thinking he placed his paw in the old one's paw, who clenched it much more tightly than it would even seem possible for the old, frail animal. As Fox looked into the white eyes of the old Cerinian, they took on a familiar blue glow and it began to feel as though Fox's skin had set fire as a blue light enveloped the old one slowly crawling up Fox's arm. The light filled the room destroying the darkness that flooded the hut as the light scaled all about Fox's body...

"Our line will live on thought you...take care of her......Please." The old one's voice rang in Fox's ears, "You are much more powerful than you yet realize, you have kept her safe for a long time....and for that I thank you. Good bye Fox McCloud, should I see your father on the other side, I will tell him how very proud he should be of his son."

As the lights faded from the room slowly there was an odd sensation that crept up Fox's back causing him to shudder. He had no idea what had just happened but that didn't matter when he noticed Krystal crying over the spot where her father had been sitting, whatever he'd done he was gone now. Fox quickly knelt down beside her pulling her into his arms leaning the side of his head against the top of hers...

"I'm sorry..." He said petting her head.

"It's okay...at least I got to see him again." She said sniffling a bit as she pulled her face away from Fox's chest a bit, "Fox what's that on your arm?" She asked as she noticed something in his fur.

Fox looked to his sleeveless arm only to notice small triangles of white fur around his bicep all facing toward his hand, he rubbed at the spot pretty hard only to find that the fur was his own, he then looked to his other arm only to find that the same pattern was there. In an instant of thought Fox took his claw and slid it along the outer seam of his right pant leg pulling the fabric apart only to expose a familiar pattern of white fur...a small spiral with four triangles pointing up toward his head, down toward his foot, and the other two on either side pointing toward his inner thigh. It was the same pattern of white fur that was on Krystal's thigh....

"Krystal what the hell is going on here?" He asked.

A few more tears rolled down Krystal's cheek, "Welcome to the family." She said with a bit of a half smile.

Fox looked a bit confused for a moment, "Huh?"

"Forget it...he did something to you. Not even a Cerinian just vanishes like that." Krystal pointed out, "Whatever else he did...it was something big."

Fox looked at his paws, "I don't really feel any different...a little tingly but....hey I usually feel a little like that around you. Whatever it was...I wonder if my mom could explain it. She's been around a lot longer than any of us have."

"He was so weak though...." Krystal replied, "What could he have possibly been holding on for?"

Krystal's words were interrupted by the sound of Fox's communicator, which he activated to be greeted by his mother who informed him that Creed and Silver were on their way back. Fox took this time to explain what had just happened to him...

"It sounds a lot like an mass Mana transfer."

Fox lifted an eyebrow, "Mana?"

"I'm sure Krystal can explain it...I was unfortunate enough to be born without any...I'm not so sure about you. Krystal said you were able to use her staff so...maybe you do."

"But why do that? Mana is one thing...but his entire life force?" Krystal asked.

Fox didn't like much the sound of that last question, "Hang on...life force? Are you two saying he's inside of me or something?"

Vixy laughed out loud for a moment, "It's difficult to explain...but I'll leave that to Krystal..." Vixy's eyes seemed to wander to the marks on Fox's arms, "I can see that's not all he did." She said looking at Krystal with a slight smile, which caused the vixen's face to turn a deep purple color.

Fox looked between the two, "What the hell is going on here!?" He half shouted, "You two are talking in riddles, old guys are disappearing and doing weird shit to my fur, Silver and Creed caused a block wide fire on Nattix, if one more thing goes bad I swear I'll scream!"

Vixy lightly chuckled, "That reminds me...the hyperdrive engines on this thing went out last night."

* * *

**(Seconds later...)**

Julius ran after the young vixen he'd introduced to Fox and Krystal, both of them laughing and shouting like a pair of playing kits before a horribly loud scream broke through the landscape scaring birds from their perches and causing the blue vixen to jump into Julius's arms. It only lasted for a few seconds but, it was a rather sudden and loud scream...

"Fox calm down." Krystal said placing her paw on his shoulder.

"Sorry...but with this Omni problem, and loosing my ship, and Voss, and now your father.......I've just been under a lot of stress these past few weeks."

Krystal's paw gave his shoulder muscle a light squeeze, "You aren't kidding your shoulders are like bricks right now...Maybe you should take a break for a while. We've got about a day before the others get back. Besides that..." She said wrapping her arms around his neck placing her head just against the side of his face, "We haven't had any time alone in quite a while."

"Yeah..." Fox said with a sigh, "Maybe you're right...It has been a round couple of weeks...and maybe, you'll bother telling me all about this crap that you and my mom were talking about."

"Hmmm....which part?"

"Surprise me....how about your little comment about welcoming me to the family?" Fox asked.

Krystal froze for a moment, she wasn't exactly sure how to say it, "Well...to be blunt, He accepted you as.....my mate." She said the last two words rather lightly.

"Mate? Wait a second. Are we?"

Krystal smiled a bit, "By any Cerinian standard......yes. Only my father would have had the power to bless you with his family mark...in the eyes of me and my family, you are a full blooded Cerinian now. He'd changed so much from the person I used to know...to change like that was kind of against his nature."

"Change is nature Krystal. The entire aspect of nature is based around change...if not we'd never have four seasons......just one."

"You don't seem to bothered by this." Krystal said.

"Why would I be?" Fox asked tuning his head and kissing the end of her nose, "I love you...to be honest......you're the only one I could ever see myself with. I'm just no so sure that I deserve this."

"Fox...If he didn't think you did...he never would have done this." Krystal said moving around in front of him, "So I guess by Lylat standard this makes me Krystal McCloud doesn't it?"

"Yeah...I would guess it does." Fox said kissing the blue vixen, "Now you can explain this Mana thing that you and mom were talking about."

Krystal sighed, "Alright...but, can we get out of this tent first?"

The two walked out of the tent, only to be met by a stern faced male Cerinian. The blue fox stood there for a moment staring at Fox, before shifting his glare toward Krystal. For a moment Fox thought that he was going to be attacked before this Cerinian looked to the marks of Fox's arms, and quickly looking back and forth between Krystal and Fox. He developed a rather large smile before letting the two pass...

"What the hell was that all about?" Fox whispered as they walked away.

"I'm...not certain but, I think...you've been accepted. Look at how everyone is looking at you now."

As the two walked thought the small make shift village Fox noticed that none of them glared at him when he walked by anymore, some of them even bowed as he walked by. The act sort of confused Fox...

"Wanna explain the bowing?" He whispered through the corner of his mouth.

"The downward triangles on your arm....they state you as an aggressive leader." She said getting an odd look from Fox, she laughed a bit, "...alpha male."

"Hmmm...interesting. What do the ones on your arm mean?" Fox asked pointing to the small link of circles and linked by vertical lines.

"Oh...that means I'm warrior of silence. That normally I don't fight unless I have to...." She laughed nudging him with her elbow, "It basically means I'm a real bitch when you piss me off."

"I can believe that..." Fox replied, "I've been on the receiving end of the bitch. And I'll try not to piss you off anymore."

"Try?" Krystal asked.

"Yeah...try." Fox said nudging her with his elbow, "Cuz you've never been more beautiful than when you're angry."

Krystal looked a bit irritated, "I'll give you the benefit and take that as a compliment."

After a short walk the two found themselves on the small hillside that looked out over the woods, they had been sitting there for hours without saying a word Fox was simply enjoying the moment while it lasted, having a beautiful vixen resting her head on his shoulder. She was supposed to answer his questions but, in the midst of things she'd forgotten all about it. The stress had left Fox a long time ago, Krystal's presence was a great help to that...now that he was there with only the two of them and nothing to bother them, he found it amazingly easy to simply forget about Omni and the fact that they were about to practically start a war while ending another all at once....the only thing that mattered to him at that moment was Krystal. As he leaned his head against hers, his eyes slowly began to grow heavy threatening to pull him off to sleep. That is before his ears heard someone approach from behind them...

"Hello Julius...what do you want?" Fox said half scaring the crap out of the poor wolf.

"How'd you know it was me?" Julius asked.

"You drag your left foot every two steps." Fox replied, "Might wanna work on that."

"Right...anyhow. The others kind of...well they'd like it if you two would stay on the surface for the night..." The brown lupine said, "They keep referring to to someone I've never heard of as their chief. Something like Alpha or some crap...my Cerinian is not very good."

"They're talking about Fox." Krystal said from her position.

Fox and Julius both looked to the blue vixen, "They what?" They asked at the same time.

"The symbol on your arms is the same as the one on my father's arms. Anyone with that symbol leads the tribe...and if no one is born with that mark when that chief is dead the chiefdom passes on to his closest descendant. The tribe has always been that way,"

"What if someone is there without the mark and then someone is born with it?" Fox asked.

"The child with the leadership band on his arms will be given chiefdom when he become of age." She answered.

"So these people think I'm their leader?" The brown-red fox asked.

"Yeah...that's about the sum of it." The blue vixen answered.

"But I can't lead this tribe..." Fox said in a worried voice, "We have a war to fight, not to mention we still have to get that spear back and make sure they can't find any of the other pieces of the damned thing so they can find out what it does. They most likely already know more about it than we do...I just hope that we can find out what it's powers are before we're too late."

"You could always pass the title to a temporary replacement." Krystal said, "Father did it all the time when he left the village, leaving mother in charge of everything."

"Well I could leave you in charge..." Fox said getting the vixen's attention, "But I seriously doubt I want to go down that road again."

"Well you can think about it tonight...follow me they've made up a hut for you." Julius said.

The three walked back toward the small lodgings Fox getting mostly the same looks as he did the first time he'd walked out into the open. As they walked a small kit ran up to Julius tugging at his leg fur until he bend down to her level. The little one whispered something in his ear and he lifted her up onto his shoulder before pointing up the hill toward the old well where there was a nearby hut, a bit bigger than most of the others but not too much so.

"That's the hut up there." Julius said, "This one's lost her mother....so I'm gonna go and see if I can't find her. Kaina most likely knows the kid."

Fox and Krystal made their way to the hut, the insides were about as decorated as any real hut you'd expect really, nothing but a small bed, and several small places to sit. At least there were real blankets and such that Fox had left with them when he'd first left the Cerinians on Sauria. Fox was happy to find that there was a small change of clothes, that really did say that they'd accepted him into their tribe, it was the same piece that he found Julius wearing that he'd said looked so ridiculous. To spare him any embarrassment Krystal stepped out of the hut while he got dressed, as she walked back in after he'd given her the okay she looked him over a few times......

"Why Fox..." She said looking over his nearly naked body, "That's more of you than I've ever seen at once."

Fox's face instantly turned a deep red color, "That's it...I'm putting the other suit back on."

"Would it help if I were wearing one too?" Krystal asked.

"Not really yo....." Fox cut himself off at the thought of her wearing the uniform she'd worn the first time she was on Sauria, "Why yes, yes it would." He quickly changed his mind.

Krystal laughed a bit as she knew what he was thinking, she didn't need to read his mind for that, "Fine I'll be right back." She said with a smile.

Now that she was gone Fox felt less embarrassed...he wasn't used to wearing anything only meant to cover his ass and crotch, it made him feel odd...and a bit drafty. He felt a bit exposed really, but hey if Julius had no problem wearing one of these......things, why should Fox have a problem with it. Fox sat down on the small bed that was made up of what appeared to be some sort of animal hide that he found remarkably comfortable, and thought about the whole chieftain thing. He was certain that he could find someone to take the job, hell most men in the tribe would most likely kill for the chance. His train of thought was broken however as the small cloth that covered the opening in the hut moved a bit allowing a familiarly gorgeous blue animal to step into the room, freezing his eyes to her. He couldn't remember the last time he's seen Krystal wearing that uniform, she'd started dressing normally just after they'd reached Corneria for the first time...

"You know what?" She said, "It feels a little relieving being rid of all that heavy gear, feeling the cool night air on my fur, it brings back memories."

Fox didn't respond, he simply kept staring....he seemed like he was in some sort of trance as Krystal walked up to him, as his eyes were still glued to the spot she'd been standing in with his mouth hanging slightly open. She waved her paw in front of his fixated eyes a few times...

"Hello in there....Fox?" She said trying to get his attention.

As she looked to the spot Fox was staring at she turned back right into a rather frightening face as Fox acted to lunge at her yelling loudly enough to scare the hell out of the poor vixen, who stumbled back falling on her ass...

"GOD DAMN IT TO HELL FOX!!!" She screamed with her paw over her rapidly beating heart, "YOU SCARED THE SHIT OUTTA ME!!"

Fox was now laughing hysterically, "I---I.....I'm sorry.....couldn't.....h-h-h-help it." He said between his fits of laughter and attempting to catch his breath.

As Fox kept laughing Krystal got to her paws and knees growling a bit before leaping onto Fox forcing him onto the bed where the two wrestled about a bit biting each other's ears, and constantly attempting to pin one another. After a few moments however Fox flipped over on top of the vixen pinning her wrists to the bed panting heavily, as he looked down at her face however Krystal was smiling rather brightly, that was when Fox noticed the rather provocative position he'd pinned her in. Before Fox could move however Krystal lurched out kissing him very deeply, which only increased as Fox released her wrists allowing Krystal to wrap her arms around his neck. Fox rolled to one side placing them both on the soft bed as he took Krystal in his arms. Krystal let out a surprised yelp followed by a fit of muffled giggles as she felt Fox's paws take a firm grasp of her nearly bare backside. The kiss lasted until neither one could hold out any longer, and pulled away from one another panting very heavily trying their hardest to catch their breath while they simply lay there in each other's arms looking into each other's eyes. Krystal rolled over placing her back against Fox's chest and pulled his arm over her as her tail seemed to wrap around his leg.....

"I love you Fox..." She said lightly, "We can talk about all the rest of that stuff tomorrow."

"Don't worry about it..." Fox replied drawing the thin blanket over them, "...and I love you too."

* * *

**(Undisclosed Location)**

Syler was a bit unsure still about Arlex's plans they seemed too simplistic to actually work...

"You are certain that this will work....it hardly seems feasible." The Cerinian said looking to the staff laying on his desk.

"You already know why Number 13 was on Nattix...this company is as good as gone.." The black fox sitting in Syler's seat replied.

"If this goes wrong I stand to loose everything that I've been planing for over 20 years Arlex."

"I am well aware of what you have to loose...but once you display the power of the blade when it is fully formed there will be no one to stand in your way."

"Fine...I'll send word through the complex and set the plan in motion....you'd best pray that you know what you're doing." Syler finished in a clear threatening tone before leaving the room.

Arlex reached for the staff which shot an arch of blue electricity into his fingertips forcing his paw away, "On the contrary by the time my goal is reached every life form in this universe will pray......to me."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry if the chapter seems a bit slow. What can I say I hit a bit of a dry spell...but, soon there will be masses of top notch ass kicking. Soon enough the quest for the rest of the Blade of Ages will begin again, and it's true power will be revealed. Either way about it, the next chapter will start the last leg of the Fic so sad to see the end in sight. Only like.......14 more chapters to go...where has the time gone? Anyhow thanks for the support R&R and I'll try to get the next chapter out there soon enough....Later...**

**The footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox  
**


	48. Chapter XLVII

**A/N:Okay it's a bit shorter than I'd hoped but...the next chapter will be looong...maybe even longer than chpater 28...and there will be lots of action. Hope you all enjoy the chapter. Don't forget to R&R...and I'll see you when 48 is up. Thanks for the support...**

The footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox

**

* * *

****Chapter XLVII**

Fox could feel the light beating down on the small hut he slept in, he could feel every contour and curve of the blue furred angel that he held in his arms. He refused to open his eyes as he simply pulled her closer to him, the very smell of her set all of his senses on fire. The enticing smell that wafted through his body caused a slight shiver to work down his spine as he nuzzled a bit into Krystal's neck fur causing her to giggle a bit in her sleep. She shifted a bit in her place before turning over pressing her chest against Fox's as she reached around him squeezing him a bit tighter in her sleep. Fox's ear twitched a bit as Krystal let out a peaceful sigh in her sleep, her wet nose on the side of his neck caused him to shiver a bit...but, at the moment he couldn't care less, he was too enthralled by the smell, feel, and warmth of Krystal's body against his, for a long time he wandered if he'd ever feel her soft, caressing body ever gain...and now that he had her back, there was nothing that would ever tear her from him again. He really couldn't help himself as his paw slid along her lower back seemingly on it's own the sensation sending a shiver down the blue vixen's spine, she let out a light gasp snapping her from her sleep. She woke with Fox smiling at her...

"Sorry...did I wake you up?" He asked.

Krystal rubbed her eyes a bit before kissing him on the nose, "Um-hm...It's okay though." She said wrapping her arms around his neck with a light smile.

"Um...what are you doing?" Fox asked as the vixen rolled herself on top of him.

"Well...we have a bit of time before we have to leave." She said before placing several small kisses on his lips.

Her small kisses eventually built up until they were wallowing in one incredibly long passionate embrace, their noses had become their only source of oxygen at the time as they refused to release one another even after their lungs began to ache and scream for air. Krystal finally pulled away from Fox as she felt his paw run up her thigh before grasping tightly onto her backside, she giggled a bit at the fell of his paws against her cheeks before her head seemed to lean back of it's own accord as she gasped at the feeling of the passionate kisses that Fox had began to line about her neck. She let out a semi-loud moan as Fox's free paw began to massage one of her breasts. Another shiver slid down Krystal's spine causing her tail fur to go rigid as she felt Fox's kisses begin to trail down her chest. In a moment of passion Krystal closed her eyes only to have a familiar beeping sound force her to open them again. The sound of his communicator had interrupted Fox and he let out a loud sigh as Krystal slide off of him allowing him to answer the annoying device. Fox was instantly greeted by his mother...

"Fox, Bill just got here and Creed and Silver should be back any hour now." The white vixen said.

"Alright...tell Bill we'll be on our way up in a few minutes." He sighed as he turned off the communicator and smiled at Krystal, "Well. I guess we should get going huh?"

The blue vixen leaned across the bed and kissed him on the cheek while wrapping her arms around his neck, "Yeah I guess......this whole thing is going to get really bad isn't it?" She asked with a worried tone.

"Yeah...this could start another war altogether, but it's important that we get that staff back...I don't wanna see what someone like Syler would do with it if he found the rest of it." Fox replied.

"You know that we don't stand a whole lot of a chance here don't you?"

Fox placed a paw on her cheek holding her head against his, "No...we can't afford to think like that. We'll beat this thing...and after it's all done you and me can just disappear. Find a nice place to finally get away from all of this...just you and me."

"I look forward to that...and I hope you're right."

A short while later the two were dressed in their usual gear as they headed out into the open encampment...Julius and his little girlfriend were both waiting near Fox's arwing, there was a large mass of the Cerinians there as well gathered around the area. No one really said anything while Fox climbed into his arwing and started up the engines which roared to life while Krystal started up her own ship...

Fox smiled as he looked down to the brown wolf, "JULIUS IS IN CHARGE UNTIL I CAN COME BACK!!!" Fox yelled over the engines, "IF ANYONE HAS A PROBLEM WITH THAT TAKE IT UP WITH HIM!!!"

Before Julius could say anything in reply the cockpit of Fox's craft hissed shut locking out all outside sounds, he could clearly see that the lupine was yelling at him about the decision...but he'd seen that Julius could handle it, he'd shown that when he helped the little Cerinian girl that had gotten herself lost. Not to mention the fact that the tribe had already accepted him. Fox simply shrugged his shoulders before tapping the space near his ear symbolizing that he couldn't hear anything the wolf was shouting at him. The large gathering cleared the area as the liftoff of the two ships blew a powerful wind through the area. As they rose from sight Krystal looked back onto the ant sized people that shrank in the distance as the scenery expanded outward from her higher vantage point. They were the last of her kind and they'd changed so much from the people that she'd once known, though they were the same they'd learned to accept others despite their differences rather than to reject them. Where she had once almost developed a pure hatred for her own kind, she was now more proud than ever to call herself a Cerinian. Their flight toward the Nemesis took a short amount of time before the two small ships landed in the Nemesis's docking bay...oddly enough no body was waiting for them. As Fox helped Krystal down from the cockpit of her ship, placing his paws just above her hips and gently setting her feet on the ground. Unfortunately this set her very close to him as their eyes met for a moment, and as if under no control of themselves they drew closer to one another until their lips were less than an inch apart, before something gathered their attention...

"Ah—hem!" Someone called out clearing their throat, "Hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Krystal and Fox both turned to see a familiar brown furred canine that was standing just inside of the docking bay doors; he was waring a pair of camouflage cargos, and a tight black tank top, a pair of dog tags still lay against his chest, his heavy combat boots made his footsteps sound much more heavy against the metal floor...

"It's good to see you again Krystal..." Bill said as he approached the two of them, "I've heard some pretty bad things about you over the years. I suspect that none of them are true though."

Krystal released Fox and hugged her old friend, "I haven't seen you in forever Bill...Fox told me about Ayme....I'm sorry."

"Don't be...she knows what she's doing." Bill replied as the vixen broke away from him, "Well...lets get to business. Fox, lets hear your little plan."

Fox smiled, "Alright...but first I'd like to take a shower...meet me in the kitchen in an hour."

"You gonna explain what you're doing with Omni's largest flagship?" Bill asked.

"You'll understand everything by the time we're done today trust me."

Fox was happy to see his room once again...he soon found himself allowing whatever stress he had to be washed away by the shower's steaming water. He usually took his time when taking a shower thought as it was the only place that he was completely alone, even though he loved Krystal's company more than anything, when he was with her his only thoughts were of her and only her. He needed to think, and he was the most relaxed now than he'd been in a long time. As the water poured out over his relaxing to a state in which not a single bad thought crossed his mind the ship's PA system sounded off...

"Fox...Creed and Silver are back.." Vixy's voice echoed into the fox's bathroom.

Fox sighed, his moment of relaxation was over, "Alright...Just have 'em meet us in the kitchen later."

"Alright."

With another heavy sigh, the half relaxed, half irritated fox stepped out of the shower and reached for a towel slowly drying himself off before looking into the steamed up mirror. He wiped a paw across the surface which let out a slight _Scree_ against the surface of his palm, the only part of himself he could see at this point was his eyes...even they had changed. He could see every remnant of his past reflected in the surface of those green spheres that stared back at him, reminding him of all the lives that had been ended at his paws. He couldn't help but wonder whether or not any of them really deserved to die. He'd gained so much understanding of war and death than he'd ever really cared to know. As he looked through those eyes into the depths of his own soul, he could see that his mentality had changed over the years...he had no desire for this kind of life anymore. He remembered something that Peppy had asked him when he was only 23 years old..._Where will you be in another 10 years?_...He had asked the young vulpine. Now that he could think about it, Fox could only see himself in one place in 2, 5, or even 100 years from now...in the arms of the one blue vixen who'd become everything to him. He smiled a bit as he thought about it...when Peppy had first asked him that question he had no idea what the old hare was talking about but...now, he was happy to say that he had an answer...and he hoped it was the one his old friend had wanted to hear.

After a bit longer Fox realized that he was freezing his ass off and headed out of his bathroom where he quickly got dressed in a pair of loose fitting cargo pants much like that pair that Bill was wearing in the docking bay, and a black muscle shirt, as well as his favorite combat boots. As he got dressed he slid on a part of fingerless black gloves, thinking of all the blood that had ever fallen on his old fighting gloves. He couldn't remember when he'd stopped wearing the black visor shades that he placed on the bridge of his muzzle now, but as he did he realized that, he'd always gotten like this when he knew there was something big about to happen...he became quiet, withdrawn, and often contemplative...mainly about what would happen should he die or something during the fight, but...not this time. He had a totally positive outlook on this whole thing. They were going to get through this all, and then he would take Krystal to someplace where these sort of situations would eventually become a thing of the past...just like he'd promised. He cleared all these thoughts from his mind as he walked out into the halls of the ship, there was no place in war for doubts, he was amazed that for some reason he'd survived as many battles as he had with his mind full of self doubt. Maybe it was because of his Cerinian blood, or maybe it was sheer will to live that pulled him through most of his close calls, but all he knew was that he'd lived...trying to explain it would only give him a headache. As Fox made his way through the halls he realized that everyone's complaints were true the ship really was too fucking big, as he'd been walking for nearly ten minutes and was only just reaching the kitchen...

Fox let out an annoyed breath as he stopped before the kitchen doors, "We all need G-boards that would solve everything." He told himself as he walked though the door.

Fox's eyes instantly locked on the brightly smiling face of the blue vixen sitting at a table in the center of the room where she was conversing with Creed, Bill, and a young cheetah girl that Fox had never met before. Most of the eyes at the table turned to Fox as he walked toward the table where he took a seat next to Krystal. There was a slight silence at the table for a moment, Fox couldn't help but to be silent he still had a lot on his mind....

"Oh...Fox..." Creed suddenly called the vulpine's attention, "This is...."

"Jane Marx..." Fox interrupted reaching his paw across the table, "Krystal's told me a lot about you."

The yellow eyed cat shook his paw with a smile, "It's nice to actually meet someone so famous." She replied, "I was a little surprised to hear that you were still alive after that scare last month...apparently Omni won't stop at anything...even faking Fox McCloud's death." She developed a slight grin, "You're a lot cuter in person than in all the photos and TV." The sudden sentiment making Fox blush a little.

"Um...yeah...thanks."

Suddenly Bill reached over and poked a finger at the white pattern on Fox's arm, "The hell did you do to your arm?" He asked.

"Long...complicated...story." Fox answered, "First off lets get some food and I'll work over that plan with you alright."

Bill shrugged his shoulders, "Sounds good to me I'm fuck'n starving."

Fox and Creed handled the cooking for the moment being, and soon enough everyone was full and content while Fox sat by filling his old friend in on everything that the team had put together. Bill was a little overwhelmed by everything he'd heard...true anyone that gained power as quickly as Omni had, was definitely hiding something dark in their midst, but, he'd never imagined that everything had escalated as far as he now heard that it had. He also found Fox's plan of attack to be a bit underhanded and sneaky...not like him at all...then again Fox had changed a lot from the vulpine that he'd once known. It took hours for Fox to explain in detail everything that had happened to him and the others during this entire incident, he hated Omni more and more with every moment that Fox and the others spoke. Especially after hearing that their main source of income was supplying gangs and other illegal outfits with very illegal weapons and ships, the company as far as he could count was subject to more than 11 code violations of the Cornerian Alliance's 5th anti-terrorism act. Then of course he heard of something that went beyond illegal, Genetic Engineering. The level on which Omni had been breaking laws was unheard of...Bill had been keeping mental track of the offenses one after another but somewhere along the line had lost count somewhere after 75...unfortunately there was no proof that any of this was true accept for one small thing......Fox. If they could prove that the body that was buried was not indeed Fox McCloud it would be all the proof that they needed to send the entire armada after Omni...

"Fox...you know what you're telling me to do right?" Bill asked after Creed and Jane had left the room long ago.

"Yeah Bill." Fox replied.

"If we do this too soon. Omni will have men waiting...and they'll cover all of this up...and most likely attack before we have a chance to." The canine said.

"And if we move too slow..." Fox interrupted, "Their revenues go to hell and Syler splits before we have our chance at the head of the whole problem. Then he gets away with everything he's done...and a weapon that as far as we know can destroy an entire planet."

Fox handed Bill a large brown envelope, "Look...I looked into this guy that's replacing the General. He can't be trusted...he's working for them. They're trying to get a foothold while they still can. This is a list of every name inside and outside of the Cornerian Alliance who's involved with Omni, and some other information that I'll trust you to make the right decision with. Even proof that my mother is still alive."

"Fox this isn't any kind of small matter...you know that?" Bill said taking the envelope, "If this goes according to your plans...It'll mean war, there are a lot of people out there that support Omni with religious devotion."

"I know..."Fox said looking to his paws on the table, he smiled a bit as Krystal lay her paw on top of his and began to rub the back of it with his thumb, "...but, it's the only option we have. At least with the Cornerian and Katinan armadas we have a chance, if we don't act fast enough though we won't even have that."

With everything that needed to be said Bill looked to a wall clock on the far wall, "Well...it's nearly 1 o'clock. You should get some rest."

"You too...there are plenty of rooms." Fox replied.

"Thanks...but the sooner I look all of this over the sooner we can get this all over with." Bill replied holding up the envelope.

After he left the room Fox sighed, he already knew what Krystal wanted to tell him...he didn't want to believe it but he knew that it was true...

"He's in on it too isn't he?" He asked.

Krystal had been inside of Bill's head the whole time, "I'm sorry Fox...they told him they could cure Ayme...but you already knew didn't you?"

"His name was on the original list...I chopped it down a little."

"Then why tell him our plans?"

Fox lowered his head for a moment, "It's all part of the plan. He'll deliver the information, and Omni will panic once they learn that we know so much. That's when they'll come looking for us...and find us...well at least the ship."

"So what the ship will be the distraction while we sneak in?" Krystal asked.

"Trust me this will work a lot better than that." Fox smiled a bit, "Don't worry about it though. We'll talk more about it tomorrow."

Fox walked Krystal to her room and kissed her good night before heading back to his own room...where unfortunately his thoughts would once again not allow him to sleep. Even laying there in nothing but his boxers, he could do nothing but think about what was going to happen. Even though he knew Bill was about to turn them in...he couldn't hate the canine for it, it was for Ayme, and Fox himself would have gone to the same lengths for Krystal, he couldn't hold something against Bill that he himself would have done...but, it still hurt, he felt as though the only people he could trust anymore were here, inside the very ship that denied him the sleep he so sorely needed. As his thoughts wondered off he heard the door to his room his open, allowing a very familiar sent to travel through the air. He slowly rolled over out of bed as Krystal approached him almost silently; she was wearing something that left nothing to the mind, a light red nightgown that was nearly transparent in the light and only reached a few inches down her thighs, he could almost perfectly see her underwear through the cloth. For a moment he didn't know what to think until the vixen silently slid into the bed next to him and wrapped her arms around his chest resting her head on his shoulder. He reacted to this in the only way he could think of, he pulled her tightly to himself before pulling the blankets over the both of them...perhaps sleep wouldn't be so hard to get after all...


	49. Chapter XLVIII

**Chapter XLVIII**

Silver had not fully recovered from his fight on Nattix...he'd taken much more damage than he really cared to let on; it took hours to remove the massive amount of splinters and gravel that had been embedded into his flesh, he wasn't certain why but, his back and ribs hurt, Like before when he'd entered such a state of mind, he remembered nothing about the occasion...just...anger. It frightened the young vulpine to know that he could be capable of such a thing without any recollection of it. The only other person in the Medical bay was the pink bunny that was sitting in a small chair next to his seat. She didn't make a sound as she slept with her head laying on her crossed arms next to him. The silver fox gently moved the lip ear that had fallen in front of her face, a small pang of fear gripped at the back of his mind...just how much control did he have when he was fighting like he had on Nattix? Was there even a remote chance that he could hurt any of his friends while he was like that? Was there a chance he could end up attacking her? It had become his greatest fear in only the matter of moments that he'd thought about it. He didn't know why but he smiled when Roxy moved a bit in her sleep and smiled, There was no way he could every hurt her...even against his own will. All he could do after clearing the thoughts from his head was to lay there and watch the bunny sleep...

Fox's eyes fluttered open as he let out a long yawn, he'd not been expecting to get any sleep but he was glad that he did, he felt refreshed, and full of energy...though he suspected that that may have had something to do with the blue vixen that still clung to his body

immersing him in her sent and her warmth. He could feel her warm breath on the side of his neck, but he refused to get up...he had no desire to leave her at this point, for it would not be for a short while that they would have to go with his plan,,,and for now at least he was in a place that he never wanted to leave, his own paradise. He couldn't help but smile as she whimpered a bit in her sleep, he had no clue what she was dreaming about but judging by the smile on her face at least it wasn't a nightmare. Still he wished that just for a little while he could see into her mind like she could to so many others...only to see whether or not he was a part of her dreams as she was a part of his. As he lay there he ran the back of his paw gently across the unbelievably soft fur of her cheek, she was without a doubt the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen or known...she was perfect. As the thought came to his mind Fox leaned in kissing the sleeping angel on the forehead before laying his head back on his pillow and closing his eyes. He couldn't sleep, he was already awake, very rarely would he wake up in the morning and possess the will or ability to get back to sleep in any way. He simply lay there...as he did he could hear a slight sound emanate from the vixen...it was a very light sound like he'd never heard her make before, she was purring. He'd never really heard any fox make that sound before. It only lasted a short few minutes before she squeezed her grip around his chest a bit tighter and groaned a bit in her sleep as one word softly fell from her lips...

"...Fox..."

He immediately opened his eyes as he'd thought she had woken up but, to his surprise she was talking in her sleep...something else he'd never seen her do before. His question had been answered, apparently he was a part of her dreams, the thought of it made the young vulpine smile before closing his eyes again. Soon the vixen's warmth, along with the comfort he felt pulled him back to sleep...where his dreams were no different that his reality at that point. Another few hours passed before Krystal woke, she really didn't want to get up, but she really did need to use the bathroom, and it was pretty late in the morning. She nudged Fox's chin upward with her muzzle but, he only groaned a bit. She then lifted herself on top of him and pressed her lips to his, at first she didn't think it had worked by soon she felt his paws grasp her sides pulling her deeper into the embrace before she finally pulled away...

"Wow..." Fox said a bit breathless, "That beats the hell outta my alarm clock."

Krystal smiled, "I think it's about time we got up..." She said, "Don't want anyone to get the wrong idea."

Fox pulled her back in close to him so that their noses were barely touching, "So? What if it wasn't the wrong idea?" Fox smiled.

"I'm not sure..." Krystal giggled a bit, "But it sounds like you're trying to seduce me." She said moving her muzzle and placing her finger on his lips.

"A little...why is it working?"

Fox was cut off by a sudden kiss, "A little..." Krystal smiled a bit after pulling their muzzles apart, "But...I think we should really get out of bed. Cuz I have to use the bathroom and I'm a little hungry." As if at the mention of food Fox's stomach growled loudly, "And it sounds like you're hungry too." She laughed.

"Yeah...I guess I am." Fox said rubbing his stomach as Krystal climbed out of the bed.

Fox quickly climbed out of bed and got dressed, nothing thought out, just his black tank top from last night and a pair of jean shorts, he didn't even bother To put on his boots, it would be another day or so before they had to get ready for any kind of an attack. It was really the only time if not the perfect time to relax...he needed to get the thought of war off of his mind which he was sad to admit had been on his mind for days. He made haste toward the kitchen as his hunger was even worse than he'd thought. Fox was oddly surprised that nobody else was in the kitchen, most of them had most likely decided to sleep in. It wasn't too long before Fox had two plates of food set out on a table...pancakes had always been one of his favorite breakfast foods, they were good, easy to make, and didn't take forever to cook. They had also quickly become one of Krystal's favorites not long after she'd initially joined his team for the first time. The smell the batter gave off reminded him of Krystal...it had to be the blueberries. For a while Fox thought about what he'd said to Krystal before heading into the kitchen, he was surprised that he found himself able to talk to Krystal like that...normally even the thought of implying such a thing would have made him blush madly, then again he had to admit that he was a much different person that he used to be. As he contemplated this the hiss from the kitchen doors sliding open caught his attention...he was happy to see that it was none other than his favorite blue vixen. She wore a tight fitting tank top, along with a part of sweatpants that nearly matched the color of her fur perfectly. He couldn't help but smile as he saw her, her hair was matted terribly and wasn't tied back like it normally was, she yawned while rubbing her right eye before she sat down...

"Where is everyone?" She asked before taking a deep whiff of the food in front of her, "They're really missing out here."

"I'm not sure...maybe they all just decided to sleep in or something." Fox replied, "Hang on." He added, "MIA. Locate Creed."

For a moment there was no reply before the automated voice answered, "Crew member Creed, not located on board. Four arwings disembarked for the Sauria's surface approximately 3 hours ago."

"Why would they go to the surface without telling us?" Krystal asked after taking a bite of her food.

Fox smirked a bit, "Maybe they just wanted to give us a little time alone."

The playfully devious look on the vulpine's face made her chuckled a little bit, "I'm being serious Fox."

Fox put up his paws defensively, "Okay...I get your point we'll call 'em right now." He reassured her, "MIA get Creed's communicator on."

A few seconds went by before a familiar voice came through the PA system, "Hey. Sorry for not telling you or leaving a note or something...I came to tell you that everyone wanted to visit the Cerinians before all the action starts. Your mother especially. Not only that I thought with all that's been happening you two could use some time without a bunch of others around."

Krystal was happy that there was no imager with the PA system as Creed would have seen the purple color that washed over her entire face and part of her neck...

"She's blushing isn't she?" Creed asked over the intercom, as if he knew what her reaction would be.

"Creed leave them alone!" Vixy's voice scolded him like a young kit.

"Alright...Man I sware, with an attitude like that she could pass off as just about anyone's mom."

"What was that!?" The elderly vixen's voice asked harshly from far off.

"Nothing Ma'am!" Creed called back, "Christ how good can your hearing get."

"Good enough to hear that...now get out here and help us this was your fault in the first place."

Fox and Krystal could hear the large vulpine shuffle around a bit, "I told you it was a damn acci..." The communicator turned off.

Fox looked over to Krystal, her face and neck still a dark shade of purple, he could only smile, "You have any idea how cute you are when you're blushing like that?" He asked.

Of course this only made her blush more, "Knock it off Fox." She demanded cocking back a bottle of syrup with an intent to throw it.

"Okay..." Fox replied giving in as he went back to his food, "I wasn't teasing though. You're beautiful no matter what you're doing."

Fox didn't lift his gaze from his food again until he was done eating and when Krystal finished he took their plates to the sink and headed back into the main room. He thought for a moment about something to do, but he really couldn't think of anything other than his normal routine of doings about the day. He had MIA scan over the ship for any problems, only finding a few minor electrical failures that were quick minute fixes. By noon the vulpine found himself in the ship's docking bay working on something he'd found in one of the ship's store rooms, it was a surprise. He was amazed that he was able to work with the mechanics of the thing, maybe all that time of watching Slippy work with his toys had payed off. The small device that lay in front of him was no bigger than a skateboard but it had no wheels or supports for it to stand on the floor, and was a polished chrome color. As he finished his work he tossed the thing from the table he'd been working at. Instead of hitting the metal floor the board hummed lightly and hovered several inches off the ground. The G-board worked off of the same principles as an arwing's G-diffuser, simply outputting gravitational force beneath it to keep it off the ground, it was like the thing was constantly sitting on top of a ball of gravitational energy. The board bobbed a bit as he stepped onto it, it was incredibly easy to keep his balance on the thing. He pressed his heel toward the back of the board onto a small button with a slight amount of force and the board shot forward at a pace that wasn't insanely fast, but could out do any runner or bicyclist. He pulled the thing to once side whipping back around just before colliding with the wall of the docking bay. Krystal was a short way down the hall when she heard an excited yell from the large docking bay and rushed in to see what was going on only to see Fox gliding around the room on a small board of metal, she knew what it was but, had never seen anyone ride one. As she watched somehow Fox leaped the board up onto the edge of an arwing's wing sliding across the entire wing on the underside of the board before leaping off of the end spinning about several times before landing, he brought himself to a sudden stop in front of Krystal who smiled at his childishness...

"Having fun?" She asked.

"A blast. You should try this." He said stepping off of the board, "It's really simplistic." Krystal simply stood there she wasn't so sure it looked a little dangerous, but Fox suddenly grabbed her by the waist and sat her on top of the board, "Look it's really easy okay. You just lean in the direction you want to turn, the harder you lean the faster you'll turn. The more you press down on the button under your left foot the faster it'll go."

Krystal was a bit nervous though she wasn't sure why, "Fox...I—I I really think I should get off of this...."

She was cut off as Fox climbed onto the back of the board wrapping his arms around her waist, "Look I'll show you that there isn't anything to worry about." He said pressing down on the small button.

As the board slid across the floor the board sped up, and as soon as she was sure they'd hit a wall the board pulled to one side. The manner in which Fox was forced to arch his back to make the turn pushed his hips against the blue vixen's backside. Apparently her body being pressed up against his in the manner it was at the moment had gotten his partner's attention, as she could clearly feel it every time he turned the board. Her tail wrapped around Fox's waist as she began to take control of the board herself, Fox couldn't help but to close his eyes as her hair wouldn't stop blowing into his face causing her sent to overpower whatever other sense he had at the moment. As their ride continued Krystal began to speed up the board, Fox found that his heart was racing, much more than it should have been from such a ride. He leaned his head over her shoulder and began to nuzzle the side of her neck as his paws began to rub her stomach before one moved along her body up to her neck. Fox could feel the board slow down as her heart rate sped up, Krystal leaned her head back as Fox began to kiss and nibble at her neck. Their actions led them off of the small board where fox found himself pinned against the hull of an arwing, he wasn't sure how but he'd already lost his shirt, but as Krystal felt where this was headed she pushed herself away from the deeply passionate kiss they'd been locked in...

"Fox wait..." She said trying to catch her breath.

Fox was confused, "What? Did I do something wrong?"

"No...Trust me. You aren't doing anything wrong." She smiled, "It's just......well......there's no turning back from this."

"Why would I wanna turn back?" He chuckled pulling her closer to him by his grip on her waist, "I love you."

"And I love you...but, what if it all happens again?"

Fox chuckled, "This is something I would hope would happen again."

Krystal bore a serious look, "That's not what I mean." She said turning her face away from him.

Fox suddenly caught on, that was why she was so hesitant during these moments, "Wait. Is that what this is about?" He asked placing a paw under her chin and gently turning her head to face him, "Hey..." He said noticing that her eyes were till looking to the floor, "Look at me!" He half shouted causing her to finally look to his eyes, "I am NEVER leaving you. I already lost you once, I'm not gonna let it happen again. I admit that I was being selfish when I made you leave...I didn't want anything bad to happen to you, so much that I didn't even think about what effect it would all have on you. Krystal, I learned from the years that we've spent apart that, even though I can live without you......there isn't a point to my life if you aren't a part of it." He said pulling her into a warm hug, "You need to understand that."

Krystal wiped a few tears on the side of Fox's neck where her head was resting, "Tell me again."

"What that I love you?" He asked as she pulled away from him.

"No. What we're going to do after all of this is over." She said as they began to walk out of the docking bay, "I like that story."

"Alright..." Fox said draping an arm over her shoulders, "But lets go get some lunch...I don't know why but I'm hungry as hell."

* * *

It was late at night when the arwings finally docked with the ship again. Creed stretched his back as he climbed out of his ship and twisted his neck sharply to either side resulting in a short sided series of pops. He was forced to rebuild a large hut when he'd stumbled and caught his balance on a major support that unfortunately gave under the power of his pneumatic arms. He yawned heavily as Jane jumped from the arwing as well. She was wearing a custom Cerinian outfit like Krystal's old one...it was easy to tell by the smile on her face that she had fun. She too stretched her back. Silver and Roxy followed behind them, both of them dressed in Cerinian garb, the pink bunny let out a long yawn. As the group all gathered and headed into the ship Creed noticed that it seemed the only ones not wearing the strange clothes of the blue foxes were himself and Jared. Though it didn't seem to bother Jared as he could leave Shera be ever since he'd seen her dressed the way she was. After a moment Creed simply left the room without so much as a word with Jane following shortly behind him, the others followed in step. None of them were really hungry as they had all eaten quite a bit while they were visiting the Cerinians. Vixy broke away from the group and headed off in another direction, she was hoping to find Fox and speak to him about something she'd thought about while she was down on the surface. She approached Fox's room with caution, but when she knocked on the door she found that there was no answer or sound of any kind. They white furred vixen opened the door only to see Fox and Krystal laying there in each other's arms, the sight made her smile, she simply hoped she hadn't woken either of them up, what she needed to say could wait until morning, after all she herself was rather tired...

Meanwhile as Vixy headed to her room, Creed went about preparing himself something to eat, he really didn't care for the types of food that the Cerinians had. Jane had followed him, she hadn't really eaten that much on the surface either. As she sat there at an empty table Creed could practically feel the young cat staring a hole in his back...it was a bit unnerving. After a bit of time Creed approached the table and slid her a plate before sitting down himself...he'd have sat at another table but, he really didn't want to hurt the feline's feelings. There was a time that he would have jumped at the thought of having such a lovely young female practically hanging off of him but, his thoughts had changed since he'd watched Maria die. He kept telling himself that it wasn't his fault but, in his own mind he knew this was a lie...he had every opportunity to stop what had happened long ago...her blood was on his paws and he'd have to simply live with it. It was as he sat there picking at the food he'd made for himself that Jane looked over to him...

"Creed..." She said getting his attention, "You haven't said anything about my suit." She added in an obvious attempt to cheer him up.

"Cute..." He replied with little enthusiasm, there was no pulling him back now that he was lost in thought.

"What's the matter Creed?" Jane asked, "Thinking about Lia?"

Lia had decided that the Cerinians could use her help more than the others and had decided to stay on Sauria, "Not really...she's pretty gifted with medical stuff so they could really use her down there."

"Well then what is it?"

Creed pushed his plate to the side, "You really wanna know?" He asked receiving a positive nod in reply, "Well it actually started when I was still a kit..."

* * *

Silver found himself in bed waiting for sleep to find him but, for some reason he found himself unable to sleep, for the longest time he simply lay there thinking of everything that had become of his life thus far. His friends...everyone on the ship had become so important to him, especially Roxy. When he'd first found his way out of stasis he was so cold and alone...there wasn't a person in the world that cared about him, but, now he had all of these people that were trying their hardest to save the lives of everyone in an entire star system that could have cared less about any one of them...he still had trouble comprehending why, but he figured that if he simply stayed with Fox and the others he'd eventually find that answer himself. As his thoughts kept him from sleeping the silver vulpine sat on the edge of his bed trying to make the thoughts go away. A sound caused his ear to twitch but, he didn't turn around to see who it was, there was really only one person that ever came to his room. The bed bobbed a bit as the bunny's weight moved beside him and sat down...

"Hey what's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing really...just thinking. It looks like we'll be ending all of this pretty soon, where does that leave me?" He asked, "I can't fit in with society...not any of the ones I've seen...you haven't seen what happens when I get angry. There's no place for a monster with other people."

Roxy leaned her head against his shoulder, "Silver you aren't a monster. You're just......special. A lot of people are going to have a hard time dealing with that...but you know what? Anyone that doesn't like it can go fuck themselves. I don't think you're a monster and neither does anyone else on this ship..." She said petting his head, "You're too sweet to be a monster."

"Thanks Roxy..." Silver said rubbing his head against hers for a moment,

"Look you should really get to bed..." She said standing up, "I really just wanted to say good night."

As she started to head toward the door she was stopped as she seemed to be caught on something, which seemed hard to do in the Cerinian attire she still wore. She turned to find that Silver's paw had a hold of her wrist...

"Don't go..." He said softly, "I don't like being alone."

* * *

As everyone found their way to sleep Creed remained in the ship's kitchen telling Jane everything that had happened, everything about his past that had led up to Maria's death and his current position. Jane didn't say a word, she simply sat there listening to everything that the large vulpine had to say. They'd sit there talking about it all night...

Fox groaned a bit as he rolled out of bed, he was a bit curious as to where the shirt he'd been waring last night had gotten off to, he remembered loosing it. He found a pair of jeans and pulled them on, and found himself a white sleeveless shirt, he found that he had a slight headache though he couldn't remember why. He made his way into the bathroom to go about his normal morning routine which most times only took the most of 20 minutes. As he left the bathroom still drying his fur he noticed Krystal was sitting up and yawning heavily...

"Morning..." She yawned.

Fox rubbed the side of his head as he dropped his towel, "Think you can explain why I have a headache?" He asked.

"You sort of dropped your guard while we were training last night." She smiled as she stretched her back, "I'm sorry....I really didn't mean to kick you so hard."

"No..." Fox said, "If I dropped my guard I deserved it." He thought about their situation last night for a moment, "Say. We didn't...."

Krystal laughed a little bit, "No Fox...I'm sure you'd remember if we did."

"Well...I'm sure the others are back by now..." The light brown fox said, "You should get dressed and come get something to eat. I don't know why but I've got the feeling that today is gonna be one helluva day."

As Fox headed out toward the ship's kitchen he wondered where this bad feeling was coming from...it was like he could feel Omni baring down on him. It was an unsettling experience, as it made him fear for his crew's lives but he was certain that his plan to use the ship as a diversion would work just fine, as he was certain Omni would jump at the opportunity to have the colossal ship back in their possession. When Fox finally made it to the kitchen he found that Creed and Jane were already there each with a small mug of coffee, and after getting one for himself he made something to eat for himself and Krystal as it turned out Creed and Jane had already eaten. Creed explained everything that had happened down on the surface, and explained that Lia would not be coming back. Fox wasn't surprised, for the small amount of time that he'd known her Lia seemed to want to help people...not kill them. Soon enough Krystal entered the room wearing a pair of jeans and a blue tank top, she took the empty seat at the table across from Fox. While they ate Fox explained everything that Creed had just told him...

Krystal had noticed what Jane was wearing, "Why are you wearing that Jane?" She asked.

"I like it....it's kinda cute." The cheetah replied.

Fox chuckled, "Well if you seem to be staying aboard...you have any skills that I should know about."

"She's a hacker......a good one." Creed replied.

"Okay...one of those can always help." Fox replied, by her looks he'd have never guessed that one, "Any experience with weapons?"

Jane chuckled a little, "Are you kidding. I grew up around a mafia...if I didn't know anything about guns daddy wasn't doing his job right. Tony taught me a lot about defending myself. He was like my big brother, I grew up around the guy."

"Well...cute uniform or not. You're going to need something else to wear." Fox said, "That's hardly something to be wearing in the middle of a firefight."

"Thank you for the concern Fox...but, I'll decide what to wear for myself thanks."

The day moved by slowly, far too slowly for Fox as he was certain that Omni would make their move soon now that the company was as good as dead for the time being. He tried everything possible to occupy his mind, from working on the arwings in the docking bay to training for hours on end in the training room...but nothing seemed to quell the thought that soon enough the crew of the Nemesis would find themselves surrounded by Omni Corporation ships, it really was only a matter of time. He hadn't told anyone his plan yet, he wanted to wait until the last moment...the ship's lights had only just shut down to simulate night when Fox was sitting in his seat on the bridge, Krystal was seated at another seat across the bridge she felt it as well. She knew that Omni would come...it was simply a matter of when and how many there would be. A short while passed and Krystal had fallen asleep in her seat, the sight of her half slumped over to the side made Fox smile, she was intent of staying there with him all night if she could but, even as Kursed...Fox simply had more experience going without sleep. It wasn't much longer before a low voice rang from the ship's PA system...

"Captain...there are several small warp gates opening less than 100,000kilometers off the ship's starboard side."

"Thank you MIA. Wake the others." Fox said hopping out of his seat and moving over to Krystal, "Hey..." He said shaking her awake, "Come on. We have to get this thing started. MIA leave the docking bay open to all outside ships."

"What's going on?" Krystal asked groggily.

"We have company...come on. MIA tell everyone to meet in the docking bay."

Several small black ships, designed a lot like an arwing set down in the docking bay of the Nemesis. The four small ships produced four black clad animals each wearing a full bodied suit. As one of them pressed a small button on the neck of his helmet it collapsed on itself folding back over his head until it looked like a thing necklace of metal. The white wolf beneth it had a stripe of black fur that down between his eyes ending in a small point on the bridge of his muzzle. He lifted his paw to his right ear...

"This is Captain Smith...the place looks deserted." The wolf said.

A light voice echoed back through an unseen com device, "Do not let your guard down Captain. The animals aboard that craft are crafty indeed. And steer clear of the large red fox...he is in possession of Neural links...if you have the opportunity kill him on sight. Try to brink as many back alive as possible; if you must kill them so be it..."

"But with all due respect sir..." The wolf replied, "It looks like they jumped ship long before we got here. This whole thing could just be a ploy to get the soldiers away from HQ."

Syler sighed on the other end of the communicator, "Very well then. Scour the ship...if none are found return with the Nemesis, at the very least I will have that ship returned to me."

* * *

The three other pilots met with their Captain who waved them all in to him, "Alright...Kaleb, Mika...you two start from the first deck, Me and Gwen will start from the brig and work our way back up meed on the bridge. If you find any one don't kill them call for back up...you never know where someone could be hiding on a ship this size."

Hours passed but the two teams found absolutely nothing, once they'd all met on the ship's bridge, they were all without their helmets. Gwen sat at one end of the room, the tiger's white fur was not like that of others of her kind, as it was pure white, her long hair was as dark as pitch and covered her left eye. Kaleb was the team's youngest member, he'd only been there for a year, the lion was Gwen's younger cousin on her father's side and though most of the time he was very quiet he could be a bit hot blooded at times, he slicked back the mane of red fur that surrounded his face as he leaned against far wall of the room, and Mika was one of The Captain's best friends...they'd known each other practically their whole lives, the white furred minx was rather laid back and seldom spoke at all, her golden, shoulder length hair was tied into a short pony tail...

"This place gives me the fucking creeps." Mika said lightly.

"I don't have a problem with this ship..." Their captain replied, "But that Arlex guy. There's something about him that makes by blood run cold."

"I didn't like him either Lastrad." Gwen said looking to the white wolf, "Something about his eyes. I was actually afraid to be anywhere near him."

Kaleb crossed his arms over his chest, "He smelt like blood...and death."

"Well..." Lastrad said setting their coordinates, "The sooner we get this thing to Syler the sooner we can get paid. I can't wait to put as much space as possible between me and that Arlex guy...something ain't right about a guy that smiles that much, and it ain't no pleasant smile either."

"Agreed..." Gwen replied, "I can't wait until we can finally go back to Dan'jas where we belong."

"Hey..." Lastrad said, "Work's been slim around there so...naturally Lylat would be the place to go right? It's like I promised..after we get this job done we can all take a nice vacation on Kajaarr. All we have to do is take this ship back to Omni and get the hell out of there before McCloud's team does whatever it is their planning...That's one firefight I don't want to be caught in the middle of."

"Then what the hell were we doing going after them?" Kaleb asked in an almost demanding voice.

"To be honest...I somehow knew we wouldn't find him that easily." Lastrad answered standing up after noticing the ship had shot into hyperspace, "Well...I'm gonna go see what's in the kitchen, I damn sure ain't getting any sleep tonight. Not on this ship."

Lastrad's team had searched the entire ship for any sign of Fox's crew...to be honest with himself he was a bit happy that he never fond the renowned vulpine. His team checked the ship's logs and found that 8 of the ship's 20 original arwings were missing...enough for Fox's team to get away in. The white wolf's team's ships were older models and even though modified, he wouldn't have dared stack up his team's flight skills with any number of the old members of Star Fox. Gwen was their best pilot and at most he believed that she'd only last a few minutes with any of them. All that was left to do now was to sit and wait for the Nemesis to land, that way his team could get paid and could finally go back to their own star system. It was as he sat there in the kitchen with a small sandwich that Gwen entered the room and sat down she looked a bit unsettled...

"What's wrong?" Lastrad asked, "Can you see anything?"

"Some thing's but...it's all jumbled. The voices feel like they're going to split my skull apart." The tiger said placing her paws on her temples, "Something isn't right about any of this. The voices are all coming from this." She said tossing the map cylinder she'd found in Fox's room onto the table.

"You can't make out any of it?" The wolf asked.

"Something...." She winced in pain a bit as she tried her hardest to concentrate, "...about...a blade....home. They just keep screaming...it sounds like their all in pain."

Lastrad sat the cylinder on the table and started to guide the feline toward the door by her shoulders, "Come on you need your rest. I don't know what this thing is but just stay away from it okay."

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**A/N: Sorry for the lack of action in this chapter...but, I wanted to introduce Lastrad's team...and add a little more to the story itself. Anyhow I promise that chapter 49 is lined up for nothing but action, action, action...all the way. What do you expect? Fox's team is infiltrating Omni HQ. Well it's 1 am and I have a job interview in the morning so. R&R, enjoy and thanks for the support... ^_^**

**The footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox  
**


	50. Chapter XLIX

**Chapter XLIX**

Several hours passed and Lastrad's team finally set the massive ship to land in a hanger set by Omni. Syler seemed a bit annoyed that Fox's team was not found, but, he seemed a bit happier now that he had his ship back. Unfortunately for Lastrad's team, Gwen was not showing signs of waking any time soon. Whatever that object she'd found was, it had done something to her. Unfortunately at the time this meant that Lastrad's team was not leaving Omni anytime soon. His team was given permission to sleep aboard the ship until their team was ready to leave however the tests of time would see a slightly differing outcome to their current situation...

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**(Nemesis Docking Bay)**

The docking bay of the Nemesis was completely silent...the ship had been looked over several times for any kind of tampering but, there was nothing that seemed to be out of place. Their teams had however overlooked one minor detail. One of the arwings' small cargo bays slid open forming a small ramp allowing a familiar light brown vulpine to step out who reached inside helping a blue vixen out into the open. Soon enough all of the crew was standing there in the docking bay, stretching their sore bodies as their confined quarters were rather cramped and uncomfortable...it had been an unusual plan but that was the beauty of it, no one in Omni would ever have thought of looking for them in such an odd place...now they were inside of Omni and most of the soldiers should be out still looking for Fox and his team. It was a perfect diversion that would seriously put a damper on Syler's defenses at the time...

the small team of animals gathered around Fox, "Alright everyone...that was the easy part. Remember what the teams are supposed to do?"

They had split into several teams; Fox, Krystal, Jared, and Shera made up one team, while Creed, Silver, Roxy, Jane, and Vixy all made up the other team...

"Our team finds and cuts out this station's power supply...hopefully causing some sort of panic to get the power back on-line...then we fall back to the docking bay and wait for your signal to move in and provide the distraction that you all need to get into Syler's office."

"Krystal..." Fox said turning to the blue vixen beside him, "How many soldiers are in the base?"

"Give me a moment..." She said as she closed her eyes to concentrate, "This facility is enormous. Most of the soldiers are out looking for us. There's a small team on this ship but, only one of them is even awake...I doubt we have to worry about him though, he's too busy worrying about his friends. Outside in the hanger there are about four men, and overall no more than 100 on the entire base. I'd look for Syler but, he might be able to sense me if I did."

Fox exhaled a deep breath, "Well then..." He said pulling out his father's old combat knife, "Looks like I'm up first. I'll call it in as soon as the area is clear."

Lastrad sat in the kitchen of the Nemesis...it was always hard dealing with it when Gwen had one of her episodes, he never knew the reason or purpose behind her abilities but...he liked to believe that there was a meaning to every such power, a particular use for it. He stood next to the viewing windows of the large dinning area, the heat from his coffee steaming up the glass pane before him, as he stood there something caught his eye however, unfortunately it moved by so quickly and stealthily that he barely caught a glimpse of it. The large hanger the massive ship sat in was no different that most hangers, spare for the fact that it was located inside of the Omni Complex it was relatively the same; it was littered about with small ships and transports for the Omni staff to carry out small assignments and such, and large metal crates full of god only knows what...knowing Omni Lastrad figured they were most likely full of weapons or something along that line. As he studied the room he saw it again, it was only visible for a moment or two but this time he could clearly make out a bushy tail as whatever it was ducked behind a large stack of crates seemingly vanishing from sight. His interest was peaked at this point. Soon an armed guard in black armor moved by the stack of crates, Lastrad's eyes only left the spot for a moment before the animal simply vanished, there was no sign that the ape had ever been walking there. Suddenly a fox's head stuck up from the crates, the head of a light brownish-red furred fox with a large scar across his face. The assassin's head was only visible for a moment before vanishing back into the shadows clearly he'd been scouting the area for his next target. Lastrad had heard about a short time when Star Fox had been short on work for roughly 8 years or so, and heard that during a small expanse of those years Fox McCloud had done some training with an elite group in Black Ops known as "Shadow". They called themselves Shadows because of their ability to strike completely unnoticed, and with deadly precision before simply fading back into the darkness they came from. He saw the truth behind this name now, there was no sign of the fox at all, and he doubted that he'd have seen it even if he was down inside the hanger with the guards that he was certain were all doomed. He was even more convinced of this when the next guard, a fox, was taken out right in front of his face. The animal was walking toward the Nemesis when a pair of furry arms extended form the shadows stripping him of his weapon as it took a hold of his muzzle drawing a knife across his neck before dragging him into the darkness. The next animal was walking along a small alley formed by a large row of crates. He never really saw it coming as the shadowed figure of Fox McCloud leaped from the shadows dragging the animal to the ground, the guard did not even twitch, the death must have been instantaneous. The sound of the two animals hitting the floor was enough to gather the attention of that last of the guards in the hanger, unfortunately as soon as he came into sight of McCloud the vulpine's knife whizzed thought the air burying itself in the animal's face. As Fox retrieved his knife, several other animals all joined him, Lastrad could see the massive fox that Syler had warned him about, he didn't see any neural-links...Wait were they all coming from the ship? As Lastrad realized this he rushed off toward the docking bay. He couldn't believe what he saw, several of the arwings that were on the ship had their cargo bays wide open...the launched arwings had only been a diversion to make everyone think they'd left the Nemesis when they were on board the docking bay the whole time, he rushed off to the bridge...

"Computer...open com link." He demanded.

"Access denied...voice print not recognized. All systems locking down." MIA's voice replied from the PA system.

Suddenly the ship's doors all slid shut, locking their palm scanners into lock down mode...Him and his entire team were now trapped.

Fox's team split up from the others and headed down the main halls of the large complex which looked strikingly familiar to the one they'd already destroyed. As Fox's smaller team headed into the complex Creed's team used a maintenance elevator to gain access to the place's lower levels where the complex's power grid was maintained. Luckily for them there seemed to be no real number of guards on duty there, most likely they were all guarding Syler's sorry ass, or were out looking for Fox's crew. Fox seemed more focused than usual in their search as his small team of himself, Krystal, Jared, and Shera made their way through the structure, which Krystal found surprisingly bare...she didn't like the feeling of it at all. As they carefully made their way through the complex the blue vixen made her was to Fox's side...

"I don't like this...something feels wrong about this place. It feels like every wall of this place is watching us." She said shivering a bit at the thought of thousands of eyes watching them from the darkness.

"I think you're right...something isn't right here." Fox replied, "Can you pick anything up?"

"Hang on." Krystal said pulling the four person group to a stop and concentrating as hard as possible, "Wait a minute something isn't right at all...all of the soldiers I sensed before......they're all gone. There aren't any thought patterns at all."

Fox took Krystal's paw, "Then lets hurry." He said before rushing off through the halls flipping open his communicator, "Creed change of plans get your team back to the Nemesis and prep from launch."

"But we haven't even...." Creed's voice started before being cut off.

"Just do it something is seriously wrong with this place and I don't want any of us caught here any longer than we have to be."

"Right then but what about the four on the ship?" Creed asked.

"There's only four...throw 'em into the brig and we'll find out what to do about them later."

Fox closed his communicator as his small force entered a large familiar looking room, a massive round room that scaled very high up, the main wall nothing by high density viewing windows. The team took a small elevator up searching floor by floor for Syler's office, and just as Krystal had predicted there was no one on the space station anywhere. Until they entered what was most definitely Syler's office...

"Oh my god." Krystal gasped as she placed a paw over her mouth.

The room was littered with the mutilated corpses of at least a hundred soldiers, each body had been slashed to death or completely dismembered in some way by an extremely sharp blade of some kind. Several of the bodies had been cut in half, but the results were all the same, the floor of the room was covered by a slick carpet of blood reflecting the merciless intentions of whomever had done such a thing. On a blood soaked desk at one end of the room a familiar golden staff lay, remnants of whatever battle had ensued here scattered about the length of the weapon. Fox stepped forward to retrieve the weapon, but as soon as it was in his paws he heard something from behind him. At the sound of Krystal struggling against something he shot about ready to strike whoever dared to lay a paw on her. He froze as he saw the familiar figure that held Krystal with an arm across her throat, Shera and Jared's weapons both ready to fire at a moment's notice. The black vulpine behind Krystal backed against the rail that overlooked the lengthy fall to the floor of the large lobby...

"You...how? Creed was certain that you were dead." Fox asked in amazement at the sight of Arlex.

Arlex chuckled a bit, "Not all is as it would appear...." As he said this the dark fox ran his nose along the side of Krystal's neck and up through her hair inhaling deeply, the act causing Fox to step forward, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Arlex said drawing attention to his bared claws at the vixen's throat, "Quite a piece of work isn't she?" He asked running the back of his free paw along the side of her face, "Cerinians......they bare such a striking beauty, far more than your average vixen." His free paw rested on her chest just above her breasts, "This is your only warning McCloud...you have no idea what it is you are dealing with...there are powers at play in all of this that your feeble mind cannot even begin to comprehend. Take the staff by all means buy cross me again, and you...as well as every one of your friends, will all suffer the same fate as these pathetic animals." As he said this his paw released something that fell into Krystal's cleavage before pushing her forward. Fox caught Krystal as she stumbled forward and watched as the mysterious vulpine leaped over the railing still facing Fox's small team

Krystal quickly reached into her shirt and removed whatever it was Arlex had dropped, her eyes went wide as soon as she had a clear look at the small thing that now rested in her palm. Fox snatched the small cylindrical silver device from her paw, "HOLY SHIT!!!" He screamed throwing the small device and barreling out of the room toward the elevator.

The others followed behind him and Jared turned to Fox as soon as they were on the elevator, "What the hell was that thing?"

"I'll explain later but, we have about 10 minutes to get out of this complex."

"Or?" Shera asked.

"Or we won't need to worry about Syler...cuz there won't be enough left of any of us to fill a teaspoon."

Creed's small party had the Nemesis prepared to leave, unfortunately there was a small surprise waiting for Fox's small group near the entrance to the docking bay. A familiar looking silver furred fox stood in their path with an expressionless look on his face. Without warning the animal shot forward at Krystal, who Fox quickly knocked out of the way, unfortunately as she fell the blue vixen's head struck the hard metal floor knocking her unconscious...

"Silver what the hell is wrong with you!?!" Shera yelled checking on Krystal.

Fox pulled his knife from his belt, "This isn't Silver." He said squaring off with the fox, "You two get her onto the ship. If I'm not there in four minutes...leave without me."

"We can't do that..." Shera replied as Jared lifted Krystal onto his shoulders.

"You can and you will." Fox replied, "I have to handle this or he may try to stop us all...just trust me, I'll be fine."

As Jared and Shera rushed off toward the Nemesis, Fox simply stood there waiting for Silver's doppleganger to attack, yet the silver vulpine simply stood there studying Fox. Suddenly without warning the silver fox shot forward slashing at Fox with it's claws the attack left a set of tears in Fox's shirt. His attacker didn't even seem to pay notice to the deep cut that Fox's knife had torn into the animal's chest. This strange silver furred fox seemed to stare at Fox like a wild animal who's territory had been invaded. The animal lunged at Fox again, this time resulting in a long string of attacks from both parts of the fight that left each participant with multiple cuts and bruises. Suddenly the silver fox whipped about landing a brutally powerful kick to Fox's left shin flipping the light brown vulpine into the air, from the intense pain Fox could tell the kick had shattered his shin bone...he wasn't certain where this kid had come from but, he was immensely strong. As Fox's helpless body flipped through the air the animal leaped into the air driving a kick into Fox's chest which sent him flying into a nearby wall. It was in that moment that Fox could hear the PA system of the complex sound off...

"Warning. Explosive device detected in sector-32, 15, 41, and 66...Emergency evacuation procedures should be taken immediately. Repeat..."

As Fox heard this he fought himself onto his good leg, he already knew that the device was bound to set off the explosions soon. His opponent rushed him again, but his broken leg made it impossible to dodge the blow, which sent him several feet away causing him to slide into the docking bay where he could hear the Nemesis's engines preping for launch. After fighting himself to his feet again, the silver assailant rushed in on the injured vulpine, this time Fox managed to tuck and roll out of the way but...another kick sent him sliding across the ground back into the halls again. Something about the last attack caused him to spit up a large clot of blood...it felt like his insides had been pulverized as he managed to make it too his feet again. The silver fox rushed in on the beaten vulpine again, his fist felt like being pummeled by a slab of granite, the attack slammed his back into one of the hall ways walls. Fox had never thought about what it would have been like fighting Silver when he went off the deep end, but he was certain that it would have been something like this. No matter what he did or how he moved there was no way around the animal, the silver fox was fast, strong, and not injured. However, if this was a copy of Silver, it had to have had very minimal experience in these situations. As it once again rushed Fox ready to drive what could have been a potentially lethal punch...however, the silver fox's fist only met the metal of the wall, and before the animal could realize any better Fox's knife pierced the side of it's head pinning it to the wall for a moment before Fox removed the weapon allowing the silver corpse to fall to the floor.. The beaten and injured vulpine limped toward the hanger of the massive station only to find that his time was up as the first explosion rocked the complex...

Creed stood on the bridge of the Nemesis. The ship was far off into the distance when the entire ship was rocked by the shock wave of a massive explosion from the complex that was now erupting into a multitude of large blasts.. Soon there was nothing but floating debris left in the space station's place, which he could see bursting into flames as the small bits entered the nearby blue planet's atmosphere. His only worry now, how to tell Krystal that Fox had never made it to the ship. There were no words spoken on the bridge, there didn't seem to be anything anyone could say...they could only stand by and pray that some how Fox had managed to get away from the explosion. After the crew had all been seated there for a short time, the doors to the bridge slid open allowing a blue vixen to walk in holding the side of her aching head. As she walked forward she noticed that no one would look at her...oddly enough she didn't say anything, she simply made her way to the large viewing windows of the bridge. She was standing there for quite a while before turning around and rushing off of the bridge. Still remaining silent Krystal made her way to the docking bay where she boarded one of the arwings, before anyone could catch up to her the blue furred pilot tore out of the docking bay leaving the others wondering what she could possibly be thinking at the moment. Vixy soon boarded one of the small crafts as well...

"What the hell are you two doing?!" Creed yelled over the sound of the small fighter's engine.

"Call it a mother's intuition! Just stay here!"

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**A/N: Sorry for the late...and short chapter, but I have been incredibly busy these days. Not to mention I have a horrible case of writer's block, can't think of a thing to write for anything. Next chapter may be a little held back...sorry. I'll try my hardest to get it out sooner but, I'd really rather not rush it. Thanks for the support like always everyone, enjoy R&R, and I'll see you next time.**

**the footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox  
**


	51. Chapter L

**Merry Christmas everybody and hopefully and happy and safe New Year.... ^_^  


* * *

**

**Chapter L**

The soft pitter-patter or rain was the only thing heard as Fox slowly opened his eyes...his head was extensively bandaged and his vision was half gone due to the fact that his eye was covered. He appeared to be inside of some sort of dwelling for the most part, though it really looked more like a hollowed out old tree. He groaned lightly as he slowly sat up, instantly arching his head toward the roof of the small place hissing through his clenched teeth in pain. It was then that he remembered his fight with the silver fox inside the Omni complex...the injured vulpine looked to his surroundings; it must have been a rather large tree, and judging by the view outside he could tell that he was quite a ways up. Whoever lived in the quaint little hovel knew well what they were doing, the small place was only large enough for several animals, laying stretched out Fox could barely touch a wall of the round chamber with his paws and feet, it was warm enough, but at the same time remarkably cold...luckily as he looked about he found a small animal fur from some wild beast, that had been fixed for use as a blanket and though it was stiff it was rather warm. The walls had been carved with small images of random odd looking wild animals, and the floor had been covered by some sort of grass that actually quite soft...as he searched around the small place from his seated stop, not wanting to move his broken leg any more than he had too, he noticed a peculiar carving...they were rudimentary shapes but, they resembled letters...

"S...I...A..." He said to himself as he made out each of the letters.

As he sat by he realized that there was no way of him getting out of this tree by himself...hell, as cold as it was he had a better chance of freezing to death than making it very far anyhow. He was broken, battered, cold, and for the most part he had no idea what the planet he was on. As he thought about his crew who most likely thought he was dead, he reached for his communicator, only to find that the small device he wore on his right wrist was busted. All he could do is sit there and wait for his injured leg to heal and hopefully he'd be able to fix his communicator before then. As he slowly began to work the device from his wrist he let out a stuttering breath of white that dissipated into the air, he reached his arms about himself rubbing his shoulders hoping to warm himself up. As he did this Fox could hear the sound of scraping against the trunk of the tree. Though he was aware that this person was only trying to help him he could only hope that whoever it was could understand him clearly; he realized just how high up he was when it took such a long time for the person to finally reach the opening of the small place. As he studied the animal that stood outside his senses instantly picked up on the sent of a female, she was no taller than he was but had a light golden-brown fur spare the tip of her white fluffy tails that curved upward with a white tip, her hair was rather long, just past her shoulders the last inch or so being white as well, she wore something about her waist that was similar to Krystal's old Cerinian garb that hid her rear and groin from view. Like Krystal she looked rather athletic, showing more muscle around her legs and arms than most females...she reached for her face and pulled down what appeared to be some sort of dead bird from her jaws before vigorously shaking the water from her fur and hair. Fox instantly looked away as she turned toward him, he had seen enough to know that there was a patch of white fur that scaled from her just below her ribs, down past the waist of what she wore perfectly outlining her abdomen, and a thicker patch of white fur that sat near her collarbone and lay down between her breasts, but, unfortunately she wore nothing in the means of a top, and though nothing in comparison to Jane, her bust was rather...impressive by any standard. As she noticed he was awake she instantly dropped the bird she held and quickly walked up to him inspecting his injured leg, it wasn't until now that he noticed that whatever top she'd have been wearing was holding the splint on his leg in place. When she finished however she looked to his face bringing her muzzle within less than an inch from his face, her light baby-blue eyes were odd she looked at him like she hadn't seen a fox in forever. She slowly ran her claws over the scar on his face only to have fox shy away a bit...

"No,no...It's just a scar...It's been there for a long time." Fox said trying to move away from the half nude canine, "Where am I? Who are you? Did you bring me here?" Unfortunately the girl did not speak, "Wait can you even understand me?"

The golden furred beauty smiled and nodded, "Well...can't you talk?" He asked.

His savior bit the corner of her bottom lip as her ears lay flat against her skull and turned her gaze to the floor, "Oh..." Fox replied realizing he'd offended her, "Sorry. Well, then...My name is Fox. What's yours?"

The gold furred girl pointed to the letters that he'd read earlier, "Hmmm...Sia...Your name is Sia?"

A bit excited she smiled and nodded. Sia then turned and retrieved the small bird that she'd brought in handing it to Fox, he was hungry but not nearly enough to rip into a raw bird...fortunately he really hadn't much of a choice there was not really anything else he could eat. It made him feel like some sort of feral animal, but he had to admit it wasn't nearly as horrible as he'd thought. As the world outside grew darker, Sia moved a large plank of wood away from one of the walls and gently slid it into place over the doorway of the small dwelling perfectly locking them in, oddly it wasn't completely dark inside, there was a strange luminescent glow in the room, overhead Fox noticed where the sickly green glow was coming from...strange looking fungi had covered the roof of the small room...each glowing brightly...

"Huh..." He scoffed, "Bio-luminescence---smart kid."

Despite having closed off the hole it was still quite cold inside, as he noticed there were small air vents cut into the sides of the small room to give her air. She seemed a bit hesitant though, as she sat by shivering huddled over trying to keep warm, she had no intention of taking her blanket from the injured fox. Looking to the freezing animal, then to the blanket he had drawn over his shoulders Fox let out a heavy sigh, "Sorry about this Krystal." He whispered to himself. Fox then walked over laying down behind the young canine draping the blanket over them both as he pressed up against her, hoping that sharing body heat would make it a bit more bearable in the small room...the girl's shivering eventually stopped. Fox awoke, warm and quite relaxed, until he notice the way he'd been sleeping; he was laying on his back, and the golden furred canine was laying her head against his chest with her arms wrapped around his waist, for a moment he thought he'd done something horrible but, quickly realized that he was simply overreacting. He didn't make any motion to get up, he was warm, and comfortable...awkwardly so but, comfortable nonetheless. Soon enough Sia woke and Fox gave her the blanket so that he could continue working on repairing his communicator. The golden furred canine simply watched curiously as he fumbled around with the small device. Suddenly the small screen flickered to life...

"Creed? Creed can you hear me?" Fox pleaded.

"...ox---you? Electrical Storm.....not....your signal."

"Listen Creed....screw that just get a lock on this place and get down here."

"Already.......stal...Vixy. I'll.....en....ignal...to them."

As Creed's static masked voice faded with the snowy image, Fox let out a sigh of relief, "Thank god..." As he looked away he noticed the poor girl looking at him rather confused, he could find no way of explaining anything to her, "Is there anyone else here...like us?" He asked.

The girl sadly shook her head, how long had she been here by herself? She was clearly smart enough and strong enough to survive on her own, but the poor thing looked like she was barely in her mid teens, what kind of person would he be for leaving her in such a place. It was sad but, in Lylat you saw this sort of thing all the time, a kid survives a ship wreck and fends for themselves in the wilderness somehow managing to keep themselves alive long enough to be saved. Fox had heard the tales before many times...there was a troop of soldiers a while back that had found a young kit on a small moon that had recently gone undiscovered...turned out the poor boy had survived a transport crash and raised himself off the lay of the land...luckily enough he already knew how to talk and was eventually brought home to Katina...this girl however either simply couldn't talk, or had never learned how. He only hoped she'd understand when Krystal arrived and it was time to leave, he really didn't want to leave her there by herself. The hours pressed on and eventually the girl pulled the door out of it's place, looking around a bit before stepping out onto a thick limb...the rain had stopped---at least for the time being. Fox had grown distracted by the half nude creature one too many times before he pulled off his tank top tossing it to her, making a gesture for her to put it on, she complied but, had a bit of difficulty getting it on...it was as if she'd never put on a shirt before. He preferred this much more, thought Fox was cold now the only part of the female's chest visible now was the patch of white fluff between her breasts, Fox managed to keep warm by wrapping himself in her blanket...

"Friends are coming to get me...You understand?" Fox asked as she looked out to the thick forest before the small place.

The girl looked back to Fox and very gingerly nodded to him, "Good...'cause you're coming with us." Smiling this time she simply nodded again.

The hours seemed to take forever, Fox couldn't help but to think that something had happened to Krystal and his mother...but soon his new friend's ears twitched agaist something that carried on the wind, and then Fox could hear it...the sweet sound of Krystal's voice calling out to him, moments before he could feel something in the back of his mind...

"_Fox?"_

He let out a long drawn out sigh, _"Dear god---am I glad to hear your voice...for a moment I thought I'd never hear it again."_

"_You had me worried you asshole......"_ Krystal's voice shouted into his head.

"_Look...can we please talk about this later? I've got a broken leg,and I'm freezing my ass off up here."_

"_Yeah I guess." _Krystal replied.

Soon enough the voices outside grew closer and closer, Sia very slowly made her way down to the ground to meet with them. Now alone Fox fixed his communicator to his wrist, but he could now hear something outside that sounded like fighting. He quickly made his way to the opening in the small dwelling to see that several reptilian looking large animals were attacking a blue vixen, a white vixen, and Sia. As he was forced to watch on Sia fell back after tripping over something, though Krystal and Vixy seemed to be having less trouble as they were both armed. Though not massive the creatures were rather big, like a crocodile but, nearly the size of a horse, realizing that his new friend was about to be killed Fox pulled his father's knife from his belt and leaped from the tree...though it was a ways up the fall took mere seconds and his landing was solidly cushioned by the large reptile as he drove his blade into the back of it's skull, his weight instantly crushing it's legs beneath it...he was happy enough, had he landed anywhere other than on the creature's back the fall would have definitely killed him...though it didn't stop the fall from breaking a few ribs. All the time in which it had taken him to fall from the creature's back and roll off onto the muddy ground, Krystal and his mother had dispatched what was left of their small hunting party. Krystal turned her attention instantly to the canine hovering over the re-injured fox laying in the mud, Krystal and Vixy both quickly rushed to his side putting away their weapons...

"Hey..." Fox said in a pained voice, "Thought I'd drop in..." He managed to say before loosing consciousness.

Sia recoiled and fell back away from them as Krystal had gotten closer, these animals had weapons....and she knew to fear weapons, "No, no. It's okay, we're here to help." Krystal reassured her gesturing for her to come over as she collected Fox's knife from the fallen reptile's head placing it back into the small sheath on the back side of his belt.

For a moment Krystal and Vixy looked over Fox analyzing his injuries, soon however Sia made her way to his side, quite easily picking the limp vulpine up bridal style. She simply stood by waiting for the other two to show her the way to safety. Hours later the world faded back into sight, Fox could only tell that he was in the Nemesis's medical bay. As his eyes fluttered open he was met by Sia's smiling face, and Krystal's voice...

"Hey...you feeling alright?" Krystal asked from the far side of the room.

As it didn't hurt to breath Fox realized that Krystal must had healed his ribs while he was unconscious, "At least I wasn't awake when you healed the bones this time." He laughed.

"Well..." Krystal said walking up behind Sia, "You're not-so-secret admirer here tried to help."

It was as Krystal rubbed the young canine's head that Fox noticed Sia was wearing a familiar blue shirt and jeans, "They're a little tight on her, but...I figured she'd be better off walking around in my clothes than yours. So what the hell happened to you?"

"Not sure..." Fox replied sitting up and hanging his legs over the edge of his bed, "...I remember fighting that Silver wannabe....who did this to my leg...which I am not looking forward to the healing of by the way..." He said noticing his leg was still broken, "When I realized that I couldn't get off the station in time I boarded one of the escape pods...after that I only remember Sia here bringing me food...and that whole ruckus with those...things."

"Well we're just happy that you're back..." Krystal replied.

"I'm a little worried about something though..." Fox said, "If all of the soldiers left for us at that Omni complex were killed, then who was that, that attacked us? And where did Syler go?" Fox thought to himself for a moment, "Krys...where's Creed?"

"He's in the brig trying to find something out from the team that we threw in there."

Fox looked to the floor, "Oh...alright then. I'll talk to him later."

Krystal took a moment to examine Fox's leg, "Well...what I did with your ribs will take some time for me to recover. I should be able to heal your leg in the morning if you want."

"Sounds great...I can't wait to be in searing agony again.." Fox remarked sarcastically, "Did you already find out where the next piece of the blade is?"

"No...if we only need to place the cylinder on the staff again, we wanted to wait for you to wake up....you are the captain after all."

Fox decided that he would stay in the medical bay for the rest of the night, he really didn't want to risk hurting his leg any worse than it already was. As he lay there he thought about just how lucky he really was to be alive after his fight with Silver's double...he couldn't help but to wonder, how many of them Syler was capable of producing with whatever sample of Silver's DNA he'd gotten...as he lay there a few hours passed and eventually the medical bay door slid open allowing Creed to enter the room. What shirt the large crimson furred fox had been wearing was draped over his shoulder, this was the first time Fox had ever seen the vulpine without his shirt on, not only was the animal massive in build, his body was riddled with scars, his chest a small portrait of all the battles that the fox had seen, he also noticed the place where his arms ended into his torso...a half-circled scar about his shoulder that led into small linear scars off toward his chest...

"Krystal said you wanted to see me about something?" He asked sliding his shirt over his body.

Fox thought for a moment, "You......were certain that Arlex was dead...right? Back on Fichina I mean."

Creed sat in an empty chair next to Fox's bed chuckling, "Fox, I watched you break his neck and fold him in half like a piece of fuckin' paper......he is dead."

"Well......that's not stopping him from walking around." Fox said looking rather seriously to the large vulpine.

"What?" Creed asked.

"He was inside the complex......killed a shit load of Omni soldiers, then he blew the place straight to hell."

"You sure it was him?"

"No mistaking it...it was him." For a moment Fox's mind flashed back to the few moments he held onto Krystal causing his claws to dig into the bedding he lay on.

Creed thought to himself for a moment, "Look---I'm not even gonna act like I know what the fuck's going on here...but nothing's been right ever since we picked this little fight, and it's not about to calm down just because we don't understand the rules." He said standing up, "Listen...you just need to get some sleep, and after Krystal is done with your leg tomorrow we'll get the other parts to that fuckin' blade thing, and once we get rid of whatever is left of Omni we can all go about our lives like none of this ever happened."

"We both know it won't be that simple, Creed." Fox replied, "We already lost Voss...this shit is getting deep, and we can't all expect to make it out of this in one piece. Could you just promise me something?"

Creed sighed as he walked toward the door, "What is it?"

"If I---"

"Listen..." Creed cut him off, "You can't think like that Fox...you taught me something in the little bit of time I've known you. You know what that is?"

Fox didn't reply...

"You can't live in fear of what might happen....or you'll live a life where nothing ever will happen." Creed said smiling over his shoulder, "And that's just not much of a life now is it?" He asked, "Look...the last thing you need to do right now is worry about something we don't have any control over...don't start actin' like a pussy on me now."

Fox chuckled, he could see and hear so much of Falco in that last sentence that it wasn't even funny, "Yeah...thanks, Creed."

For the most part the large fox was right, there really was no point in worrying about something that there really was absolutely no control over. Fox for the most part simply tried his hardest to think of other things for the time being, mainly about what he was going to do with their new guests that were sitting in the brig at the moment. He however decided that for the most part that would have to wait until morning when he could walk again. As he lay there he had MIA open a channel to wherever his favorite blue furred vixen was at the moment which turned out to be her room...

"Krystal..." He paused for a moment, "I need to see you for a moment. Bring the staff and map with you."

It took almost no time for the vixen to show up at the medical bay, "Wow..." Fox said, "What a run."

Krystal laughed, "I used the G-board. Thought I'd give it another try." She said handing Fox the staff which was still tipped by one piece of the blade, "Well, we may just get thorugh all of this after all, huh?" She said sitting on the edge of his bed.

"I hope so..." Fox replied sliding the cylinder over the head of the staff as they had before, resulting in the large flashing display of lights.

Fox and Krystal looked about the large dome of stars and planets that now enveloped the room until Krystal noticed a small red flash near the right corner of the room by the medical bay doors...

"Right there..." She said pointing to the flashing dot.

Fox instantly recognized the region of space the dot was in, "I hope not..." Fox whispered.

"What? Why?" Krystal asked.

"Because that little red dot---" Fox pointed out looking to that corner of the room, "Is Corneria."

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**A/N: hey everyone! Looks like I finally got chapter 50 out there...sorry for the wait but, with Christmas and all I had a few new games to play and some other things to play around with for a little while...but, the holiday did clear away the writer's block. I hope that I'll be able to place in Chapter 51 sooner that I did 50, I don't really like making anyone wait. Anyhow, looks like Fox's group is headed right into the war-zone itself for the next piece of the blade, this may be bloody. Anyhow remember to R&R and I'll try to make 51 as snappy as possible without fucking it over on a monumental scale...THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT ALL!!**

The footsteps in the darkness - SkullFox


	52. Chapter LI

**A/N: Actually nothing to really report here so far, it didn't take as long as the last chapter so I'm happy...^_^**

**Here's 51 enjoy and thanks for the support...R&R all.**

**The footsteps in the darkness - SkullFox

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**Chapter LI**

Fox had decided that since they were the only ones in possession of the staff and map that the team should rest up for a few days and find out what needs to be done in the terms of the piece of the blade that they were now directed to on Corneria. Luckily Fox knew of one person that was still living that could find a needle in a hay stack if he was given the priority to do so … Slippy had proven that he could be reliable to do such work, luckily he had retired from the team shortly after marrying Amanda … knowing Slippy since their early years of high school even before joining the flight academy, Fox knew that above anything else he could always trust Slippy for help. Without anyone's knowledge of his doing so Fox had contacted the amphibian who was more than happy to scan every archive and file he could possibly find that may point the way toward the piece of the blade that was held somewhere on Corneria. The next day however came to Fox's discomfort as Krystal seemed rather adamant on healing the injured leg, unfortunately the act would prove a bit more consequential than the blue vixen had bargained for. Krystal made her way into the Medical bay, dressed in a white tank top, and blue jeans … she saw nothing wrong with the fact that Sia had decided to sit by Fox's side to see what all of this "healing" talk was about …

Krystal hovered over the injured limb for a moment, "You ready for this?" She asked laying her paw against his thigh.

Fox chuckled nervously, "Not really … just do me a favor and try to make it quick alright?"

"You know I can't speed up the process dumb-ass, not unless you want this leg to heal at the wrong angle. Then we'd have to break it again."

Fox grimaced at the thought, "Yeah, on second though … take your time."

"Okay then … " Krystal replied rubbing her palms together for a moment until her eyes and paws washed over with the blue light, that for Fox meant five more minutes of immense agony, "Try to stay calm, okay, Fox."

"No promises … " The injured vulpine replied a bit nervously.

Though he braced himself for the pain this time it did little to hold back the gasp of breath that rushed from his clenched teeth … at this point ignoring the pain was not going to happen, he simply wanted to hold back form screaming. As Sia watched Fox writhe in pain her expression began to go from curious, to protective. Finally Fox found that he could hold back no longer and let out a howl of pain that hurt the golden furred canine's ears. At this point her glare turned toward the only thing in the room that could have been causing Fox any sort of pain, the blue vixen attached to his leg. Fox managed to pull his mind away from the pain as he heard something that he shouldn't have, a very angry growl … though his sight was blurred from the pain he could see the snarled look that Sia was giving Krystal, her ears lay flat against the back of her head and most of the fur around her neck was standing on end. In an instant the confused animal leaped from her seat tackling Krystal to the floor breaking the vixen from her trance-like state. Fox tried his hardest to stop it but, his voice was still gone for the moment. As soon as Krystal realized she was under attack the vixen quickly thrust her feet into her attacker's stomach launching her across the room. Sia rushed back toward Krystal swiping her claws at the vixen's face like an attacking wild animal before Krystal finally caught her by the wrist spinning her about so that her back was against Krystal's stomach catching her other arm and drawing it across her chest in a criss-cross manner. However before she could reason with the enraged animal Sia tucked forward rolling Krystal and herself in mid-air causing Krystal to land on her back with Sia's weight crushing the wind from her lungs. In an instant reprisal the golden furred canine found herself thrist into the air where she was held in place by a mysterious force, wriggling and growling trying everything possible to break it's grip on her …

"SIA STOP!!!" Fox finally shouted causing the poor girl to calm down all at once.

Noticing that Sia's demeanor had returned to stoic onece again Krystal released her psychic hold on her, Sia instantly rushed to Fox's side glowering at Krystal as she approached …

"Call me crazy … " Krystal said rubbing her back a bit, "But I think she likes you."

As she said this the girl began to look over Fox worriedly, "I think you may be right … maybe you should use your little gift to tell her what you were doing."

As the girl kept staring at Krystal with ill intent she gestured to Fox, "I don't think she wants to listen to me really."

As Fox looked to Sia he could hear a slight rumbling sound coming from her throat, "Sia! Stop it!" He scolded her, "She wasn't … " He quickly cut himsel off, "Okay yeah she was hurting me, I'll give you that … but she was helping me. It's hard to understand but, it's true … it's just that healing this kind of injury hurts like hell." He thought about it for a moment, "Kinda sucks really … You understand what I'm saying at all? She's not trying to hurt me."

As his words sank in Sia's expression turned to one of guilt … Krystal smiled for a moment as she could sense that Sia would apologize were she able to do so. The blue vixen made her way over, and found that Sia was having a hard time looking at her, "Hey … " Krystal called to Sia who cringed back a bit laying her ears expecting to be scolded again, "Don't worry about it … You didn't know. Just don't do it again okay?" Krystal said smiling as she began to go back to her work.

This time instead of reacting violently to Fox's screams Sia instead paid more attention to Krystal's paws, she'd never seen anyone's body produce light before … she'd seen bugs that glowed and mushrooms, but not animals like herself or Krystal. She also noted that when Krystal was doing whatever it was she was doing to Fox, her eyes were entirely blue and the world seemed to no longer exist to her mind. The curious girl reached out and touched Krystal's paws and felt the course of warmth shoot through her arm like a bolt of electricity. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling but, it did startle her into pulling her paw away. A moment later Krystal's eyes reverted to normal and Fox seemed to lay there struggling to breath clearly again. His breaths were rather erratic and for the most part he was half out of it, but, he no longer felt any pain in his leg … at least not of the intense verity.

"Feeling any better?" Krystal asked after taking a few deep breaths.

"Yeah, rather than feeling like I've been hit by a truck. Now it only feels like I've been hit by a much smaller one."

Krystal stumbled a bit before sitting down on the nearest bed to her, "I hate doing that … makes me tired."

"Yeah?" Fox asked, "My part isn't exactly the height of my day either." He half laughed.

The next day proved to be a bit more or less normal; Fox was happy to be able to walk around again, he and Krystal had decided to familiarize Sia with the workings of the ship … where to go what some of the things were, and introduced her to her own personal room. She was practically mystified by the concealed waterfall that the shower had inside, she seemed to know what a toilet was but, Krystal found it odd that she would not have any recalling of what a shower was … but she didn't want to delve into the girl's mind as she was uncertain how well she would handle the experience. However as Krystal began to leave the canine to herself she noticed something as she began to walk into the shower. Their was a mark on Sia's backside, on the far side of the right cheek of her butt; it almost looked like some sort of brand mark a small blade like symbol with a small coil on each side. As Krystal joined Fox back in the halls of the ship Fox looked at her confused face …

"What's up?" He asked.

Krystal looked back at Fox, "I think Sia … might have been a slave."

"What makes you think that?" Fox asked.

"She has a brand … on her, well … on her butt. I can't remember where but, I've seen it somewhere before."

"It's no relevance to what we're doing is it?" Fox asked.

"No … " The blue vixen replied, "I just feel sorry for her, that's all. Nobody should be treated like property."

Fox draped his arm over Krystal's shoulders, "It's sad … but, like all the other crap out there it's something that happens … she's may be one of the lucky few that got away from it all, most don't get off so easily. Now let's go have a chat with our prisoners, maybe they know something about Syler or Arlex."

"I've read white one's mind. He seems honest enough, they're mercenaries like we were. They just needed the money, they really only want to go home."

Fox thought for a moment, that's where he'd like to be right now---home … he supposed that was Sauria now. It didn't really matter where it was, as long as he was with Krystal when it was all over, any place could be home. He realized that for the most part he wanted nothing to do with war, or weapons, or anything else that had him fighting. Sure their was no telling how much longer he would live, though Krystal was certain that it would be somewhere in the relevance to her the Cerinian life span, but all those years that he could be with her seemed to make all of this worth while, more time with the vixen he loved than most people would get, several lifetimes he had to show her how much he loved her … unfortunately there was still a very large bump in the road that would lead to their happy life together … Omni. As Fox and Krystal walked they talked about things as they normally would have back when they had first started dating over four years ago before the Angalar war, the long dreary catacombs of the Nemesis's insides gave them plenty of time between Sia's room and the brig to talk about whatever crossed their minds. As the two entered the large room that was the brig, Fox noted at just how much larger than the one aboard the Great Fox it was, only one of the 1o large cells were closed off by a light blue field of energy, at the moment the animals inside were all eating. The one Fox could only assume was their leader was the only to stand and approach the barrier the white furred wolf didn't seem to be very irate for someone sitting inside of a cell …

"The Fox McCloud … it's an honor. And Kursed. Two famous people at once."

"You don't seem like the kind of person to just walk into a death trap." Fox replied, "Do any of you have any idea what is going on?"

The white tigress in the back of the cell clutching a thick black coat over her shoulders looked to them, "I know some things, more than Syler would have liked me to."

"Why were you all here in the first place?"

Lastrad sighed heavily, "We … needed the money. You know if you're gonna kill us it's not nice to play with our minds like this."

"Why would I do that?" Fox asked, "I don't just kill anyone … you'd have to deserve it, and according to Krystal none of you deserve it, you're all just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Fox smiled, 'I've been there a number of times myself." As Fox said this he pressed a small button making the screen of blue light flicker out of existence, "You all can come out of there … that is if I can trust you won't do anything stupid."

Lastrad thought about it for a moment before extending his paw in truce, "You have my word." He said turning toward his crew, "All of our words right?" He said demandingly getting a positive reaction form all of his crew members.

As they all made their ways out of the cell, the white tigress stumbled a bit Krystal reached out to catch her but found that Lastrad already had a hold on her, and the feline seemed to be reluctant to touch her in the first place, "Don't take it personally … she has her reasons." The white wolf said helping Gwen, "Look … we don't want any kind of trouble, I just want to get my team home where they belong." He said.

"Come talk with me in the ship's kitchen when you're through with whatever it is you all need to do..." Fox said as they made their ways out of the brig, "You sure we can trust them?" He asked turning to Krystal.

Krystal smiled kissing him on the end of the nose, "Trust me, they just want to go home."

Fox sighed as him and Krystal began to make their way out into the ship's halls, "Well … then I'll get what money I can patched to them after I talk with their leader. I think we both know all too well what it's like to miss home. First off though, I think I need a shower."

Fox took his time after reaching his room, he hadn't had a shower in days and felt pretty filthy. Krystal sat by in his room waiting for him to be finished, She made due with her time walking about the room until she realized that he'd be a while and took a seat at the end of his bed...

"So … what do you think it'll be like on Corneria now that there's a war going on?" She asked loudly enough that he could hear her.

"I was down there last time … when the Aparoids hit. I don't think I can expect anything less this time."

"A lot of innocent animals are probably dying down there right now..." Krystal said in a rather worried voice.

Fox paused in the middle of rubbing himself down with shampoo, "It's not pretty … I know. A lot of animals are going to die, and even more of them if we can't get this all taken care of. Hopefully letting everyone know that I'm still alive can get everything back the way it should be."

"What if it can't get everything back to the way it should be?" Krystal asked.

Fox sighed for a moment, "Then they'll just have to deal with their war in their own way. There's a good chance that nobody is going to believe us in the first place … remember, I'm dead and gone to them now."

After a bit longer Fox emerged from the bathroom in a pair of black jeans drying his head with a gray tank top draped over his shoulder. Seeing him like that always gave Krystal … unclean thoughts, thoughts that, were she not so attracted to him she'd have felt a little bad about besides, she was certain that he'd had the same type of thoughts about her. As he stood there drying his hair … he removed the towel only see a rather odd smirk on Krystal's face …

"What?" He asked looking down, "My dork showing or something?"

The blue vixen chuckled a bit, "No you idiot … just remembering how much I like seeing you without a shirt on."

A slightly devious smirk trailed across Fox's face, "Oh really? Well, I'm pretty sure you look a lot better shirtless than I do."

Krystal stood up locking her arms around the vulpine's neck, "Really?" She asked rubbing her nose against his, slowly turning the motion into a kiss.

Fox pulled away from her to notice her black lace bra was now the only thing between her breasts and his chest, "Umm … trust me I'd really rather find out where this is headed---but, Lastrad and his group are waiting for us in the kitchen."

Krystal smiled after kissing Fox again, "Well then … maybe later then."

After Fox got dressed and Krystal put her shirt back on the two slowly made their ways toward the kitchen, where the two found the small group of animals, Fox took this moment to allow himself to prepare everyone in the area something to eat. For some reason of all the animals there Lastrad seemed to be the only one that had any intention of helping Fox cook anything. As the two, would be, chefs toiled away Krystal sat at a table with the Minx and Tigre from Lastrad's team … Krystal hated awkward silences and it sort of showed in her face, as she was trying to think of something to say. She smiled at Gwen who was seated directly across form her, it made her feel better that she got the same reply …

"I'm Krystal." The blue vixen said in a friendly voice holding her paw out toward Gwen.

Gwen sheepishly pulled her paw back, "I'm sorry … things happen when I touch people, or objects."

"What kind of things? I can read minds … "

The white tiger remained silent, "She hears, and sees things … sometimes the images get pretty intense." The snowy furred Minx to the feline's left said, "Oh … and I'm Mika."

"Nice to meet you … " Krystal replied shaking Mika's paw, "Now what do you mean she sees and hears things?"

"I'm not sure how to explain it." Mika said petting the poor cat's head, "It's okay with most of us, she's spent her whole lives around the three of us so she pretty much knows everything about us to begin with … but, whenever she touches something or someone knew … she … I don't know, it's like she can see and hear the past to whatever and whoever she touches. Most of the time it isn't so bad for her, she's just seen things that nobody at any young age should really see. She first learned about it when she was six and hugged her uncle … found out he was a serial killer, nobody should ever have to see something like that at that age."

Krystal thought for a moment, "I'm sorry … it must be hard with all of this new stuff around you."

Gwen opened her mouth a bit as if to say something but faltered for a moment, "Th-this ship … a lot of people like you have suffered on this ship … they were all blue foxes too, a lot of them died. You and your friends helped what was left of them." Gwen said, it was odd it seemed like she was always shaking.

"Are you cold? We can make it warmer in here." Krystal asked.

"No … " Gwen replied with a light smile, "I get like this around new places … my … ability has side effects, in the past it's made me really sick."

As Krystal sat there Fox and Lastrad each walked out with a few plates, and as they sat down … Lament seemed very worried about Gwen helping her with just about everything she seemed to do. For some time the group sat there eating until the lion named Kaleb decided he'd had enough of sitting by himself and headed toward the door …

"I'm gonna look around … "

"That's fine … " Fox replied, "This place is pretty damn big though so don't get lost."

"Don't bother trying to tell him anything … " Gwen mentioned, "He never listens to anyone really."

"Relative of yours?" Krystal asked.

"Cousin on my father's side … he's a little hard to handle. " Gwen explained.

For a while longer Fox and the others sat there, eating their foods, "So dose your ability work with stuff like food?"

"Not really …" Lament answered, "We've gone to several professionals on Psychic phenomenon but, none of 'em seem to know anything about her powers, they only seem to be interested in studying her."

"I've seen powers like hers before … " Krystal said.

Fox looked over to the blue vixen, "Back on Cerinia?"

"Mm-hm … " Krystal hummed, "It was one of the rarer abilities but I did see it once … unfortunately she died when we were both very young."

After a bit of a silence Fox looked to Lastrad and slowly produced the map that went to Krystal's staff setting it on the table. The white tiger's reaction was something that Fox wasn't expecting at the sight of the cylinder, as she quickly latched onto Lastrad's arm trying to force herself behind him …

"Get it away from me!" She cried falling out of her chair.

"Put it away, please." Lastrad said as he helped the frightened feline back into her seat, who was happy to see the thing gone.

She was trembling in fear at the sheer thought of the device getting any closer to her, "What was that all about?" Fox asked.

Gwen was still trembling keeping her face hidden in Lastrad's chest as he held his arms around her, "She made the mistake of touching it earlier when we first came on board this ship." The white wolf said, "I don't know what she saw or heard, but she refuses to talk about it so it couldn't have been anything good."

"Gwen …" Fox called for her attention, "Would it help if I told you what this thing is?"

The poor feline simply nodded lightly not wanting to move from her place …

"Alright … see, Krystal is from a place called Cerinia …"

Creed at the meantime was busy with some sort of repairs on the ship, luckily he had Jared there to help him … it didn't really matter to him, Creed himself simply wasn't that good with repairs. As the two were below the decks of the ship Jane sat up top passing them whatever tool they asked for while she was busy looking things up on a small laptop she pretty much took everywhere with her, she really didn't seem like the type to carry one with her to most of the people that saw her. As she sat there a familiar dark red furred paw reached up from the missing panel in the floor …

"Jane … hand me that hot pen." Creed's voice echoed from the hole in the floor, "Thanks." He said as the item was place in his paw which vanished again.

As she sat by Kaleb walked over slowly studying the hole in the floor before looking to Jane who gave him a light wave, the lion simply turned his gaze back toward the hole in the floor and shortly took a seat as if patiently waiting for something. For the longest time the animal simply sat there looking down into the hole until Creed's head popped out shaking sweat from his face …

"Okay Jane … what are you readin' now?" He asked.

Jane's fingers danced across her keys for a moment, "Up to 94 percent … about as good as you're gonna get. I don't think this ships engines have ever been in better condition. Where did you learn so much about ships?"

"Old man I knew a while back … military man, Johnny Weathers. He worked with heavy artillery so he knew a lot about this stuff..." It was at that moment that Creed noticed Kaleb staring at him, "What's the matter kid? See a ghost or something?"

"According to my father yes … you're Creed aren't you? I don't really remember too well, I was only six."

Creed paused for a moment looking into the cat's deep yellow eyes before he smiled, "Wow, Johnny's kid? Kaleb right?" The lion only nodded a bit, "Huh last time I saw you … wow you barely reached my knees. How is he doing?"

"He was fine the last time I saw him … but that was at my sister's wedding. Haven't seen him in about five years." Kaleb replied, "He said that you saved his life while you were both flying for the military. Lost both of your arms."

Creed slowly pulled himself out of the hole, Kaleb was a bit stricken by the sheer size of the vulpine as Creed reached into the hole and pulled Jared out of the hole who simply hung onto the arm until he was out of the hole, It was at that moment that Creed noticed the shocked look on the cat's face...

"Neural links kid...not my strength, it's all pneumatic. They're just covered to look like flesh and fur." Creed said, "And Jared remember to get that burn checked out."

"If you hadn't blinded me with that light, it never would have happened."

Creed laughed a bit, "Details details, just get your ass to the medical bay."

After a bit of time of Creed using a shirt that had been tucked into his back pocked to dry off he turned to Jane who'd been staring at the massive vulpine's bare chest, "So what's next?" He asked, Jane seemed to be entranced, "YO!" Creed shouted causing the cheetah to jump a bit placing her paw on her chest, "What's......Next?" He repeated himself slowly.

Kaleb was half chuckling at the young feline's actions, "Umm...Lemme check here..." Jane said punching up some stuff on her computer, "The ship's main Plasma Drive's coolant system needs some work, and you said you wanted to do some maintenance on some of the arwings."

Creed thought to himself for a moment, "Hey kid..." He said turning toward Kaleb, "You know anything about ship repairs?"

Kaleb gave the fiery furred vulpine a so-so gesture with his paw, "Eh...a little, dad tried to get some of that avionics crap into my head."

"Good, I need some help and that dumb ass Jared already hurt himself."

As Creed continued his rounds moving about the ship making certain that everything was in working order, Fox and Krystal remained in the kitchen telling their long story to Lastrad and his two friends who sat by listening very intently. Lastrad could hardly bring himself to believe what it was he was hearing actually...he could see the importance of keeping such a weapon like the blade out of someone like Syler's reach. It was a long time after they had finished eating that Lastrad looked up to Fox...

"This mission your on...what do you have to gain from it?" The white wolf asked.

Fox looked to Krystal then back to the wolf, "There are some things in the galaxy that are just worth protecting...It may sound corny or stupid, but, some things are just worth more than money. You know what I mean?"

The wolf looked to the three females that had left the table and were all chatting amongst themselves, "Yeah, I think I do. I think I see why Syler is so paranoid about you too..."

"Why?" Fox asked.

"Because your purpose is just better than his..." The wolf replied, "I think that's why you have so many animals on this ship that are willing to die for you. You have some sort of power to change people's outlook for the better, and that's something he'll never be able to do." For a moment Lastrad went silent, "Look...I don't know if we'll be of any help but..."

Fox chuckled a bit, "There's plenty of room on this ship for extra paws, if that's what you're hinting at." He said standing up, "Well...I need to set some things in order and check over Slippy's report, hopefully he found the blade segment's location and we can get into Corneria and back out before we get caught up in something bigger than we can handle."

Fox spent the rest of the day going over plans, who would go to the surface, how far away they would stay from Corneria, and what types of weaponry they may need. After putting everything together he found that it was rather late and he'd already set the Nemesis onto it's path; it was at these times that his mind raced the most. His thoughts kept him form sleep as he sat on the edge of his bed reading over the files of a small brown folder that he'd complied after receiving all the information that Slippy could find, he thought about his friends and most of all about Krystal...how bad was it down on Corneria? He really didn't want to risk anyone's life, but, this was the only way to find the rest of the blade. As his thoughts began to overwhelm the poor fox he set the small folder to the side and let out a long breath lowering his gaze to the floor. As he sat there like this he could hear the airy his of the door to his quarters open and shortly thereafter close, he knew who it was, there was only one creature he'd ever met with that smell. When he finally saw her blue furred legs he realized that something was off, maybe it was the way she was standing but, as he sat there something it the floor, he swallowed the instantly forming lump in his throat at he realized that it was a shirt. His eyes very slowly scaled up her sensuous body, she was wearing a pair of blue shorts that almost reached her knees, but further up was another story, as he found her perfectly formed breasts were fully exposed to him. His mouth instantly hung open as he tried to muster some sort of words for what he was seeing but, nothing came, until he finally forced himself to speak...

"Kryst--"

His only word was cut off by her finger being place over his lips, which she soon replaced with her own, and though unclear as to what had brought the blue vixen to her sudden actions, he slowly began to resist the urge to know why...as he fell back onto the bed pulling her on top of him...

"What are you doing?" He finally asked after breaking their kiss.

The blue vixen smiled brightly from above him, "Fox..." She chuckled, "Shut up." She finished engaging him in another kiss, one which would not be broken.

Lastrad's team had chosen rooms just down the hall from the others rooms, Lastrad, Mika, and Gwen's rooms simply either across or next to one another, while Kaleb chose a more secluded location further down the hall. Lastrad himself never really had any trouble sleeping, but as for the cat across the hall from him the night was not so kind. Gwen was breathing heavily and tossing in her sleep, her constant tossing had already thrown her blankets and pillows to the floor, she grimaced as the visions flooded back to her, everything she'd seen form that one touch of the blade's map had been seared into her mind. The images were hideous; scenes of animals fleeing from some unknown force, living bodies writhing in fire and pain...finally she watches a world through the eyes of another, as a planet slowly seems to boil over here and there until the blast of light forces her to cover her eyes. Upon opening them again she can see nothing through the window of whatever ship she is aboard...finally she looked to the furry blue paws of her dream self where the small map sat. Gwen suddenly shot upright breathing heavily, she was shivering badly from the cold sweat that covered her body.

Lastrad was awakened by something shaking him, he ignored it at first hoping that he was just imagining things...but, as the shaking happened again the while wolf slowly opened his eyes to find the white furred feline standing beside his bed shivering...

"Oh Gwen, not again." He said with a sympathetic voice, before lifting the blankets in front of him, "Come on. Get in here, you're gonna freeze."

Gwen slowly crawled under the covers moving up against the lupine who wrapped his arms around her pulling her toward him until her head rested against his chest...

"I—I'm sorry..." She slowly muttered.

"Shhh..." Lastrad shushed her lightly petting her head, "Just go back to sleep."

The night eventually allowed them both to get back to sleep...unfortunately, there would be no more time to rest after the night as in the morning the team would ready itself to go down to Corneria and hopefully retrieve the segment of the blade that was held somewhere among the meaningless bloodshed...


	53. Chapter LII

**-Chapter LII-**

--Asteroid Belt Meteo--

He found himself surrounded by a comforting warmth that seemed to warm him both body and soul, the comfort keeping him from even thinking of getting up. Her smell intoxicated his senses. Last night's events were still fresh in his mind, and he was certain that he'd remember it for the rest of his days. He couldn't help but to move the hair that had fallen over the face the sleeping vixen snuggled into his chest fur, the finger that brushed against her cheek caused her to smile and reposition herself slightly. Fox sighed heavily as he looked out the window, the massive asteroids floating about the region of space told him that they would soon be forced to leave and head right into the middle of a war zone. For a moment he considered not waking the blue angel that still used him as a sort of pillow, but decided against the notion as he knew it would not set well with the cerulean beauty...

Fox leaned down gently kissing the bridge of Krystal's muzzle, "Hey...time to wake up we gotta go soon."

She rustled about a bit before hugging him tighter than she previously had been, "Later..." She was clearly too comfortable to get out of bed.

"Krys...you know we have to get up, everyone's probably waiting for us." Fox chuckled brushing the fur of her forehead.

The vixen finally opened her eyes and lifted her head to look the green eyed vulpine in the face, smiling in turn to his own, "Alright." She complied in a light voice as she rolled to one side of the bed.

Their fur was terribly matted from their night, and Krystal's usually well kept hair was a practical mess which she managed to calm down with a few passes of a hairbrush. They had both decided against a shower as Fox was certain that the others were waiting for them in the ship's kitchen where they'd all decided to meet for Fox's mission briefing. As Fox watched Krystal pull on a pair of jeans a slight thought picked away at the back of his mind, it was something he'd intended to ask her last night but, he was a bit distracted by her actions...

"Hey, Krystal..." He said pulling his own jeans up to his waist, "What was all that about last night? You kinda surprised me."

Krystal smiled a bit inwardly, "Fox..." She said approaching him, "I love you...that's all the explanation you really need." There was a bit of worry in her voice.

As Fox finished dressing he looked into the cerulean vixen's azure eyes, "Krystal...nothing is going to happen down there. I promise." He reassured the blue vixen wrapping his arms around her, "Soon enough this'll all be over...and we can all just get on with our lives."

Krystal sighed a bit, happy that for at least now she could still be in his arms, "I hope you're right..." She whispered before pulling away from him planting a small peck on his nose, "Well...lets go the others are probably wondering why you aren't showing up yet."

As the two worked their way through the halls Fox slowly filled Krystal in on what he had planned for the raid on Corneria, eventually however, his words faded and they found themselves simply walking through the halls silently. The weight of what the team was about to do bared down on both of them, it was a difficult situation to keep high spirits in, it was as they trudged through the seemingly devoid halls of the Nemesis Krystal reached an arm around Fox...

"You scared?" She asked in a light tone.

Fox replied by reaching his own arm around her shoulders pulling her close to him where she lay her head on his shoulder, "Yeah...yeah I am." He replied laying his head on hers.

The team had been up for a little less than an hour, they all knew that Fox had wanted them to meet in the kitchen, though they had no idea why he had asked Creed to bring in a large display module which now lay in the center of one of the tables. Creed could see the worry on every face in the room, Lastrad's group had all gathered to one table where they all chatted amongst themselves about the situation. Jared and Shera sat at another table with Jane and Vixy, and finally Roxy and Silver sat off to themselves the silver vulpine's main worry showing for the pink furred rabbit leaning against his shoulder. Creed wondered how Silver would handle the situation, he was made for war, bred for killing, but he knew that Silver was too soft what he'd be forced to do on Corneria might not sit well on the poor kid's conscience. Creed himself had a slightly different worry however as he stayed in the cooking area away from prying eyes and thoughts preparing breakfast for the small 12 animal crew, his worry was for every animal aboard the ship, especially Krystal who had become his best friend over the passing years of bounty hunting together...his thoughts were only amplified as he heard the two enter the kitchen. After the two sat down he almost laughed out loud when he heard Jane's remark...

"Guess what you two smell like?" The young cheetah smiled slyly.

"Leave 'em alone Jane." The large cook rose his voice, "They don't need to hear any of that...none of us do. And you two are over 20 minutes late, for your own meeting."

"Sorry to keep you all waiting..." Fox replied to the large vulpine's accusation, "But, we do have a solid lead on where the piece of the blade is."

As he talked Creed brought out the crew's food with the help of several of the others...

As everyone ate Fox turned on the small dome-shaped device on the table which produced a holographic image of Corneria city, "Now..." Fox said, "An old friend of mine did some digging...some of it illegal...and found some information about Corneria City, long before we even discovered space exploration. When the city was first built workers found a strange...altar in this location." As Fox said this he touched a part of the image that zoomed in on downtown Corneria City, "They tried to blast it out of the way, they tried opening it, and they tried digging it up...but, in the end they simply built everything over it leaving the space below the city so that scientists could continue to study whatever it was. In the end however they simply gave up, their tests were inconclusive, and they had spent the project's budget in a little over 10 years of research. That leads us to our main problem in getting to it though. You see, the project was kept secret because The High Council didn't want the citizens to know that the majority of the city's 23rd street business district was laying right on top of some sort of alien ruin."

Most of the animals eyes widened, "23rd?" Creed asked in disbelief, "That place is a fuckin' war zone right now...haven't you seen the news?"

"Yeah...the 23rd street district got hit the hardest and is still under massive fire, from shock troops as well as air support." Fox replied, "I'm only taking a small 5 man crew with me, we need the rest up here to pilot the arwings just in case the Nemesis comes under attack or, by any other chance we end up needing air support ourselves. I know this is asking a lot so, I'll give you all a choice...paws in the air for any willing to go down there." To his surprise every animal in the room raised their paw, "That's good to know; Creed, needless to say you're coming with me...never know when we might need those arms."

"No problem." The large vulpine replied heading out of the room clearly headed for the docking bay.

"Silver, you too...you don't have enough experience with an arwing for me to trust you in a dog fight." Fox said turning to the silver furred vulpine, "I'm sorry Roxy but, you need to stay up here."

"I understand..." She replied following Silver out of the kitchen.

"I'll go..." Jane shouted.

"No Jane..." Fox protested, "We need you up here jamming whatever scanners you can to keep our asses off of anyone's radar. You'll be a lot more help up here than down there. Krystal you have more ground experience than most of the others here, I don't like it but, I need you down there too."

"I'll go then." Kaleb said from the other side of the room.

Lastrad looked a bit shocked at his offer, "You can trust him...he's a good kid, a good soldier, a helluva shot."

"Alright...then you and Krystal go get suited up...Krystal can show you to the armory." Fox replied, "I'll be there in just a minute." He said to Krystal just before she left the table, "Look...I don't want any of you to get yourselves killed or hurt. If bad comes to worse, take the Nemesis and get the hell out of this region of space..."

As Fox left the room and started down the halls he was halted by the arm only to find his mother holding him from going any further, there was a grimace of worry about her face, one that Fox could read like an open book. The young vulpine pulled her close, hugging her tightly...

"Don't worry about me mom..." He said lightly, "I've got Creed and Krystal with me, and you wouldn't believe what Silver could do unless you saw it for yourself. You just make sure you're here when I get back...I love you mom."

"I love you too Fox." Vixy replied letting her son go, "Just be careful and go..." Though she had tears in her eyes when he left she couldn't help but to smile as he ran toward the docking bay, "You have no idea how proud your father must be."

As Fox rushed out into the docking bay he noticed his small five man crew; Krystal, Kaleb, Creed, Sivler, and himself...they were all dressed down in light gear meant for fighting. Krystal wore her old armor, while Creed simply wore a black sleeveless vest, Silver didn't even bother to change out of his dark blue shirt and jeans, Kaleb simply wore a dark red sleeveless hoodie along with a pair of black jeans, while Fox himself wore his old uniform of a sleeveless jean vest over a green shirt, light green cargo pants and the same boots than nearly everyone was wearing. As the small crew looked over their gear and weapons Fox head the sound of the docking bay doors open, ushering a tall gray furred wolf to rush into the room...

"Hang on..." Jared said making his way to Fox, "I'm coming with you."

"What about Shera?" The scar faced vulpine asked sliding his shades over his eyes.

"She's always been a better pilot than a soldier...besides I want to help."

Fox nodded at the thought he could relate, "Fine...get some gear and lets go." As the lupine went about arming himself Fox turned to the group making certain they could all hear him, "Alright! Pay close attention...we are not going down there to fight, we go for the blade and come back. Most of all however we are only taking three ships, six is a bit too easy to follow. So Creed, you take Silver. Jared you take Kaleb, and Krystal will ride with me..."

The six animals all boarded their crafts, Fox quickly opened a link between the three making certain that he could open com channels at a moment's notice. Arwings, though mainly meant for single passengers, were much easier to manage with a competent co-pilot, the co-pilot was given controls of certain system functions giving the pilot less to deal with, it was proven however that most pilots worked their best behind the controls alone, so the mandatory co-pilot for the ships was discarded during the trial runs of the original FX-H1 models that Fox's father had flown years ago.

Fox fired up his small ship's engines and shortly took a small glance over his shoulder, "You ready?" He asked.

"Lets do it..." Krystal replied nervously.

"Right then..."

The small ship suddenly jolted powerfully forward launching itself from the Nemesis's docking bay out into the cold, empty void of space. Fox's small fighter was soon met on either side by two other arwings, and one that brought up the rear. It the far off distance the small blue orb that floated through space, once known to Fox and Krystal as home, they could see small bursts of light about the planet's outline. The small bursts of light were beautiful from their distance, but, the grim truth was that every burst was another life lost for an unjust cause. It was as the small team floated through space toward Corneria that Fox could almost feel the sorrow coming from his co-pilot. She may have acted like she didn't care about the well being of others but, the truth was that, even behind the mask of Kursed......the young Cerinian did care, about everyone that she met, it was one of Fox's main attractions to her, she was considerate and caring toward all living things, how she ever brought herself to kill anyone was beyond his understanding, it really didn't seem to be in her nature. What Fox was unaware of, was the fact that at the moment the poor blue vixen could feel the sorrow coming from Corneria...as well as the pained last thoughts of all of the dying animals who's last thoughts were of their families and loved ones. As Fox heard her sniffled a bit he tilted his head to one side a bit...

"Hey...you gonna be okay?"

The poor animal wiped her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, "Yeah...it's just a lot of sadness to take in all at once."

"I'm sorry Krystal." Fox half whispered, "If I never would have sent you away we wouldn't be in this mess."

Krystal let out a frustrated sigh, "Fox...this is not your fault. People have relied on you so much in the past that you feel like you're responsible for them...but, no one animal should be given that much responsibility. Fox, you aren't immortal...no matter how much people may think it, at most being half Cerinian you may live longer than most of them but, you and I will eventually both die just like everyone else in this universe. Maybe it really is better that you let them think you are dead..."

Fox didn't know why but she was right, he had always felt some sort of responsibility toward the people of the Lylat system...maybe it was to feel closer to James, who'd died protecting the animals of Lylat from Venomian invasions, or maybe it was a bit deeper than that but, as much as he thought about it, there was no answer for him to grasp onto...

"Maybe you're right Krystal..." The lost vulpine finally replied, "But I never saw myself as any kind of protector....look back on all the things that we did as a team. We had the support of every animal in Lylat. Star Fox was never meant to protect everyone, I think my father just wanted to inspire folks to stand up for what they believed in...and at some point that belief was placed in Star Fox itself. Just watch, when we get down there you'll see, they don't need Star Fox...not anymore."

As the small team approached Corneria the small blasts of light could be seen as full out explosions from the swarms of small ships that tore each other apart inside the planet's atmosphere, turning one falling object into a mass of flaming shrapnel that would most likely kill the citizens below. The larger battleships sat on the sidelines, at random firing off one of their own massive weapons, usually tearing crowds of fighters apart before slamming into one another's shields, two of the massive battleships floated about the small section of space, one torn in half by several powerful explosions...most likely a dreadnought class weapon of some sort had hit the mammoth battleship. As Fox's small party made their way toward the front lines of the fight a he opened an incoming transmission displaying Jane's smiling face...

"Hey Fox...I got some good news and some bad news." She said.

"Good news first..." Fox replied with a sigh.

"Okay...I got all of the scanners in that region of space completely blocked out using some of Corneria's satellites."

Fox thought for a moment, "Okay...so that bad news was?"

Jane chuckled nervously for a moment, "Um...how should I say this?" She started, "Um...yeah I may or may not have accidentally crashed the ship's main computer system, and you only have about a 2 hour window before they can break through my encryption. Unless they can get Slippy or Beltino to do it, then I'd say about 20 minutes. I can get the ship's computer's back online in a little over an hour...but I had no idea that Beltino had such strong defenses in his satellite system."

"Everyone makes mistakes right?" Fox replied, "As long as you can fix it, there's no problem."

"Okay then, for a moment I thought you were gonna kill me."

Fox and Krystal laughed a bit, "Look jut get to work on the computers and be ready for us to come runnin' back."

"I will..." The young cheetah replied, "Oh and Krystal....do me a favor and make sure Creed doesn't get hurt."

Krystal chuckled a bit at the cat's ongoing crush on her old partner, "You'll never give up...will you?" She asked in a joking tone, "I'll make sure the moron doesn't get himself killed."

As they approached the planet several small ships headed toward them but, just as Fox feared they would be attacked the small ships veered to one side luckily allowing the three small fighters to break into Corneria's atmosphere...they had luckily gotten out of the first war zone without so much as a hitch but, Fox could already tell that the scene on the surface of the usually peaceful planet would not be nearly so easy to cope with. As the team broke through the endless stream of clouds Fox could hardly believe his eyes; thick black smoke rose from some of the many buildings on the Cornerian horizon, several of the buildings lay in ruins, Krystal winced in pain as thousands of voices burned though her skull all at once, it was sad to say that she'd grown used to the feeling over the years. As the team finally make their landing in a large opened area in the center of what was once a very beautiful residential district several miles south of their target location, the scene was more than Fox had cared to see. Innocent bodies of animals of all ages littered the streets, several nearby vehicles were still smoking from whatever explosions had set them ablaze, and more than several buildings were laying in the streets as large piles of rubble and smoldering remains. It was like the Aparoids all over again, and it was all Omni's doing. It was as Fox scanned over the demolished landscape that Krystal notice the incredible sorrow that seemed to resonate from him...he couldn't believe that this is what everything had come to just because of one outside influence. The scene told him just how deceptive and powerful Omni really was, to be able to turn to allied worlds against one another so easily...he only hoped that they would not need him to intervene to get everything exposed for what it really was. For a moment he looked around, before looking over to Silver and giving the animal a slight nod, with that the incredibly lithe silver vulpine seemed to vanish into the shadows for the time being...

"Silver's going to scout ahead...he should be back in a few minutes." Fox said.

Krystal brushed up next to Fox, "Hey...are you alright?"

"Yeah..." Fox replied lightly, "It's...it's just, hard to look at all of this all over again. So many innocent lives lost out here, and there isn't even a point to this war...this is all Omni's fault." In a moment Fox managed to regain his composure, "But never mind that...Everyone spread out! Look for survivors! And keep your communicators on! Creed help me move some of this rubble, there may be people trapped underneath it!"

As the team spread out in search of survivors of whatever type of attack had happened here, Fox approached what was left of a small building...the place had taken a direct hit from some sort of high explosive round, most likely a Landmaster of some kind. The small place had collapsed against the side of another nearby skyscraper, most of the building was still intact but, for the most part he felt there was no hope for survivors. The collapsed building looked a mess as Fox and Creed went over the place inch by inch until Creed stopped Fox how was about to move a large piece of rubble out of the way...

"Hey. You hear that?"

Over the mass of gunfire and explosions sounding off in the background, it was incredibly faint, but Fox could barely hear what sounded like very muffled screams for help coming from the other side of the wall in front of him, "Creed there's someone in here." Fox shouted quickly moving his paws against the wall, "CAN YOU HEAR ME?! IF YOU CAN STAND BACK AS FAR AS POSSIBLE!!" He shouted with him muzzle as close to the wall as possible without touching it, "Alright Creed. Do your stuff."

Creed rolled his neck a bit sighing with relief at the sound of a loud pop, "Bout fuckin' time."

The building was not entirely destroyed, rather rubble from the buildings that dwarfed the small structure had fallen on and around it, turning the well made structure into a tomb for any trapped inside. Creed looked over the pieces of rubble before him, and exhaled deeply before squatting down and taking a hold of the bottom of a large piece of building that had fallen in and landed against the front of the smaller building. He seemed to struggle for a moment before letting out a loud strained grunt and yell of slight pain from the exertion...but, soon there was a light rumble from the large section of building and it began to move into the air until it's bottom was parralel with the massive Fox's waist...

"Everybody get back!!!" He screamed over his shoulder.

He waited a few moments before angling the large chunk of debris to his left allowing it to fall out of his paws, the thing's impact on the ground was enough to cause a small tremor in the surrounding area, and gave off a sound reminiscent of a large explosion before the fiery furred vulpine fell back onto the ground, struggling to catch his breath from the sheer exertion that had taken place. It was as he lay there that the blue furred vixen of the group rushed over placing a paw on his rapidly rising and falling chest...

"You gonna be alright?"

Creed smiled as best he could, "That was really pushing the weight limit..." He replied grunting in pain, "I think I tore somethin'...well...several somethins."

Krystal took a moment to look over the fallen fox, "Well muscles aren't so hard but, it'll still hurt hang on."

While Krystal went about healing up the large vulpine, Fox looked to whoever had been trapped under the rubble Creed had moved, he didn't like what he saw; there were only three animals inside, a light red furred squirrel and her two children, the mother had a severely fractured arm, and nearby Fox could see what was left of another animal that was stuck under some of the fallen debris. As the three made their way out into the light, the woman got a clear look at Fox's face, her jaw immediately dropped. At first she'd believed she was looking at James McCloud but, as she studied his features she realized something...

"It's you..." She said not quite sure weather or not to believe her own eyes, "But...we...we saw your body."

"Afraid you have me mistake for someone else ma'am." Fox replied lightly.

The squirrel looked toward the blue vixen that approached Fox, "Why? Why didn't you come back?"

Fox gently downed his head and walked away not regarding her heartfelt questioning while Krystal tended to the poor animal, "Come on. We gotta take care of this arm and get these kids out of here." The blue vixen said leading the mother away from the scene.

It was as Fox stood there that he felt a large paw against his shoulder, "Don't let it get to ya..." The large vulpine said, "Sometimes people just have a hard time letting go. You were an important part of these people's lives, it's better that you let them learn to survive on their own, without relying on others to protect them all the time. None of this is your fault Fox."

"There's a part of me that wants to go back but..."

Creed already knew what was wrong with that, "You think Krystal wouldn't go with you."

"I know she wouldn't..." Fox replied as he noticed a familiar silver for approaching them from an alleyway.

"Well...then that only leaves one question for you to ask yourself..." The large fox replied moving off toward Silver, "What's more important to you? All the animals in Lylat...or her? There is no right or wrong answer, but, we both know which one you want to choose."

Luckily using her telepathy, Krystal managed to find a small group of Cornerian soldiers to leave the frightened family with before returning to Fox and the others. Silver had scouted out the entire area and informed them that there were several small forces of Katinan soldiers up ahead, not far up the main road they were all following, and another force of animals just near the 23rd street district. Regardless of what was to happen however the small group of animal formed up a small rank that marched down the war riddled streets, the smell of death and burning flesh clung to their fur, and burned their eyes and lungs. It wasn't long before Fox was informed that the group was approaching the first set of animals, unfortunately as they rounded a corner Fox was torn from his feet by the sound of a gunshot ripped into his shoulder dragging him to the ground. Creed quickly took the injured fox by the foot dragging him back to the safety of the alleyway...

"Further up the street huh?" Fox asked Silver with a hint of pain in his voice.

Silver looked over the downed vulpine, "But, they were at least another half mile up the street...there were 18 soldiers holding them off."

Unfortunately as the team thought about what had happened and Krystal busied herself healing their injured leader, for some reason the gunfire didn't stop. Curious, Fox waited until his injury was no more than a fleshy bruise and peeked around the corner. The entire platoon of animals waiting for them was now facing in the other direction, and seeing this as an opening Fox called for his team to rush in. As Fox's small team rushed forward they all noticed that the entire team was only fighting one small group of animal, a type of animal that Fox had fought once already. Several familiar looking silver furred foxes. The small group of silver look-a-likes were armed this time and as Fox's small team took shelter behind a vehicle that had been turned over on it's side...

Fox looked to Silver before looking to Creed, "What the hell's going on here. First the one back at the space station. Now here?"

"Well think about it." Jared pointed out, "If you could produce an army of animals that can fight like Silver...and had a serious control issue, wouldn't you?"

Fox thought to himself for a moment before looking back around the far end of their cover, there were only several of the animals left, the skirmish had taken it's toll on both sides...yet the Katinans were the lesser of the few with only a few still living, that however didn't last log as the small number of Silvers began to go over whatever survivors were left, making certain they were dead. Silver could hardly believe what he was seeing...was this what he was made for? To kill without any sort of feeling? Were these animals any different than him? He couldn't explain why but, the sight of the animals down the street caused his eyes to burn with tears of anger, every muscle in his body tensed up, fresh blood fell from his clenched fists. Fox sat by for a moment putting together a plan of attack before turning to realize there was something missing from his small group of animals. He quickly looked back out into the street where he found Silver standing unnoticed by the enemies, that passed however at a single shot from the angry vulpine's weapon tore into one of the fakes...there were only four of them but, with the way the one had fought Fox, who'd barely managed to kill it, they really didn't want these animals to know they were there. Fox tried to call out to Silver several times but, unfortunately, the vulpine's words fell on deaf ears. It was as the rest of the team stood there watching the animals stand off, Creed and Fox could instantly tell that they'd both seen Silver get like this before.

Without any type of warning Silver bolted toward the small group of his doubles, Fox kept an eye on which one Silver really was making certain that he was not aiming at the wrong one when he fired. A small burst of lead tore into one of the animal's chests which burst open with a violent spatter of blood, unfortunately for his small group however this only enticed two of the animals to turn away from Silver and attack. The first of the two rushed strait for Fox but was driven out of it's path by what appeared to be a flying car door. The attacker however had only been stunned and continued while his cohort rushed toward the large vulpine that had clearly thrown the door. As Fox fended off his Silver look-a-like, he recalled what had happened last time, he needed to stay on his toes. The silver vulpine lashed out at Fox with the utmost ferocity trying it's hardest to rip it's claws into Fox's face...as it made one such pass at Fox the crafty vulpine managed to kick the animal's legs out from under it and, upon it's decent toward the ground, it's face was met with a kick that delivered a force that pulled the animal back over landing on the back of it's neck, clearly breaking the animal's jaw...the first time he'd fought one of these clones, or whatever they were, Fox was taken by surprise this time however the animal proved less of a threat...or so he had thought. As the animal seemed for a moment to be beaten, it suddenly rolled forward slamming it's fist into Fox's gut with a force that made the poor vulpine's vision blur. The animal then flipped forward, barely missing the axe kick it had attempted as Fox ducked out of the was, causing the silver fox's foot to dig into the pavement. To Fox's misfortune however, the animal had suspected such and, as Fox attempted to recover from the attack the animal's opposite foot struck him in the side of the head. Fox's body met the ground spinning and bounding across the pavement, he'd taken the fullest impact from the kick, rolling him past where Creed seemed to have his own problems...

The large red furred vulpine was unbelievably strong given the pneumatic strength of his artificial arms, but, the shorter silver fox was of a much smaller build making him rather nimble, whereas Creed's bulky mass and large muscles made him much more laggy in his movements...there was on point to a single punch that could end lives it he could not land it. The short silver furred fox danced around Creed landing several blows against the mammoth vulpine. Luckily however, Creed's muscular form gave him a slight armor against the blows, but they still felt as if each one struck into his bones, Creed could swear he could hear his ribs crack from a rather powerful kick from behind. The kid was strong, but, from what he'd seen back and Tannix Silver was still a step above these so called "clones". As the animal circled Creed several more times Creed could feel the animal begin tearing at his flesh with it's claws digging out bloody crags in the large vulpine's flesh; though he attempted to hold out eventually Creed fell to his knees, his body simply couldn't take any more of the punishment. The silver fox seeing that it's opponent was down cautiously approached the seemingly beaten vulpine, a light grin spread across Creed's face as his fists clenched around something amid the rubble beneath him...

"Wrong move, Shithead." He lightly whispered.

The silver fox cocked it's head to one side in confusion, unfortunately, this had given Creed the opening he'd needed. Without any type of warning the fiery furred fox tore something from the debris arching it upward into the silver fox's chin as he stood adding force to the parking meter that was now clenched in Creed's paws. The silver furred baseball lobbed through the air at high speeds until it's path was haltered by the wall of a nearby building...before the animal could move from the large impression that it's flying body had made. Not taking any chances Creed tore the meter from the top of the metal shaft in his paws which snapped off with all of the difficulty of a toothpick breaking the pipe off into a sharp point. Creed quickly hurled the javelin-like piece of steel at the animal who was still stunned by Creed's rudimentary assault, the pipe plunged into the animal's neck burying more than half it's length into the building behind it...though he didn't like the idea of it, the short silver fox had nearly killed him; his bones and muscles protested his every movement as he joined Krystal, oddly he could find no signs of Jared as he sat down allowing Krystal to tend to whatever heavily bleeding cuts he had. Several were incredibly deep...

As Fox continued to struggle with his opponent the fox had landed his own number of blows which were clear enough as the silver fox was bleeding heavily from the mouth, as well as several deep claw marks across the animals body. Fox had not quite taken so much damage, a punch from the animal had laid a large gash open on his forehead, and on another part the kick earlier had given him what he was certain was a minor concussion. The two squared off for a moment as Fox attempted to read the animal...the attack seemed entirely scouted as the silver vulpine rushed forward aiming a kick for Fox's knees...Fox made a quick leap driving his knee into the animal's chin which actually managed to stagger the animal a bit. Realizing that this could be an opening Fox lurched out driving his foot into the side of the animal's head tearing the animal down to one knee, with a quick sidestep spun dropping from his feet while driving the heel of his boot into the back of the animal's head which sent it several feet away splaying onto the ground. As the animal began to stand Fox noticed that his attack had his something, the Silver copy was staggering, barely managing to stay on it's feet. Using Krystal and Creed's cover as a type of springboard Fox launched himself into the air, and upon his decent the vulpine flipped forward adding to the force of the axe kick that he drove into the animal's skull...the shock wave of force that trailed down the animal's spine, shattered every vertebrae, causing a small spot of blood to rush from the silver fox's mouth before it finally hit the ground. His vision was still impaired from whatever damage his head had taken and Fox was at this point in no condition to fight any longer...he truly did not look forward to fighting any more of these copies of the young silver furred vulpine. As he joined Creed and Krystal he too noticed that there wasn't one but, two animals missing from the group, Silver and Jared...

Silver stood there waiting for one of his two counterparts to react in so way, the anger that twisted his expression into pure hatred had taken complete control of him. Fox was certain that even against two of these lesser copies, Silver would win...especially in the state of mind the fox was in. Silver made a lunge for his two copies at a speed that Fox had only seen once, the copy to the left was fast enough to move but, the one on the right wasn't so lucky as Silver's foot shoulder met the fox's chest sending it several feet away tumbling and bounding across the ground until it's movement was halted by the side of a half destroyed building. The second copy rushed in on the real Silver but, unexpectedly Silver dropped to the ground at the last second rolling into the animal's feet, causing it to fall onto it's face skidding a bit across the ruined pavement. With his attention on the downed animal Silver was hit from behind by a large chunk of debris pulling his attention to the silver fox behind him that rushed in driving it's knee into Silver's gut dragging the young fox across the ground. As he skid across the ruined ground the onther copy seemed to fall from the sky barely giving Silver the window to get out of the way before it's powerful fist was driven into the pavement uprooting large chunks of rock and asphalt. It was as these two stood by that one of the animal's heads twitched to one side, now bearing a large cut across it's forehead...as their attention turned all three Silvers noticed a gray furred wolf as a round blade flew toward him which he plucked from the air by a small handle spanning the hollow circular blades diameter. The animal that had been hit rushed in toward Jared, who simply stood there. Fox was a bit stricken at this point, he'd thought that perhaps Jared didn't know how to fight or something...that thought was removed however as the wolf ducked the blow that flew at his face, spinning about and repositioning himself behind the silver fox...as Silver himself sent his copy flying across the background. Jared still wore an expressionless face as the silver fox before him fell to one knee. Fox hadn't even noticed the attack that had cut the tendons behind the animal's right knee...hell, up until now Fox wasn't even aware that Jared carried any type of weapon on him...at least not a blade. The silver copy made a dash for the gray furred wolf only to quickly jolt to one side as the small bladed disc soared by leaving another cut in the side of the animal's face...unfortunately now the wolf was unarmed and the fox was rather angry. The false Silver leaped forward throwing a punch at Jared's face...it seemed to land but, for some reason the blow glanced off to one side just after striking the animal's face. Several other blows met random parts of the animal's body but, every strike seemed to posses the same impact, it would land but, glance away with the slightest movement of Jared's body. After a moment Jared ducked under one of the angry silver fox's punches and as the animal turned to meet him Jared took hold of the animal's collar dropping to his back and using his feet to launch the animal several feet into the air where a familiar flying blade struck the animal in the chest before the silver fox fell lifelessly to the ground...

In the amount of time it had taken for Jared to kill the silver furred fake...Silver had traded blows with the other copy, often breaking the animals bones. No matter how much damage the beat took however, it always seemed to stand back up, proving that not all of the copies were exactly the same. This one seemed to want no more than to kill Silver, unfortunately that was something that proved to be a step toward impossible for the animal. The silver furred fraud rushed in on Silver this time seeming to be holding something in his paw, the animal swung at Silver over and over veinly landing several kicks and punches before the superior fox drove his fist into the animal's gut forcing it off the ground, Silver quickly took the airborne fox by the tail swinging it's back into a nearby car before hurling the vulpine several yards away. Silver rushed onto the downed fox, but, a small bolt of pain tore him out of his trance like state...the stunned silver fox looked to his chest only to see a small smoking hole just below his ribs. As the fake stood holding a small blaster however, the animal was taken out by a flying vehicle that sped across the area slamming the shooter into a wall with a thundering force...small vehicles had always been like toys to Creed...but that was the least of anyone's worries at the moment as the other three animals rushed to Silver's side who lay there still not sure what had happened. As the lights faded Silver could hear their voices echoing in the background...

"Krystal can you heal it?" Fox asked.

"I don't know...It looks pretty bad." Krystal replied, "Creed...pick him up we gotta get somewhere safe, healing something like this could take a while."

The poor fox's vision faded slowly...he could feel his heart beat slowing down until all went dark, his last thoughts were of how Roxy would react to hearing what had happened. After what only seemed like minutes the silver furred fox slowly opened his eyes. After looking around a bit he found Krystal sleeping using Fox's lap as a pillow, healing all of those wounds had taken it's toll on her body. Creed and Jared watched for any other soldiers of Silvers. While Fox simply sat by stroking Krystal's hair as she slept. Silver's grunt of pain as he sat up caught Creed's attention.

"Hey. Look who's back." The large fox said gathering everyone's attention accept for Krystal who still slept, "How you feelin' kid?"

His chest still felt like it was on fire, "I don't think I like those things."

"Well welcome to the club. I can't recall how many times I've been shot." Creed said.

"Hey!" Fox half shouted, "Keep it down. She needs her sleep, healing all of us took a lot out of her. Just stay quiet and get some rest while we can...we'll make the rest of the trip tonight....the dark will make it easier to move around without being spotted."

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**A/N: So yay. Chapter 52...53 if you count the Prologue...which the website dose...I don't ^_^ **

**Anyhow thanks to everyone that has stuck with this thing...it's sad to say it but, this thing is almost done. I am also officially working on a sequal to this fic. If anyone has any suggestions or anything now would be the time for that since I will start posting as soon as I'm finished with COF. Well...hope you all enjoyed the chapter as much as I did, and thanks for the tons of support as well as your reviews...C'ya...XD**

**The footsteps in the darkness - SkullFox**


	54. Chapter LIII

**-Chapter LIII-**

The night on Corneria was eerily quiet for a battlefield...Fox hated the sounds of war, they could frighten a body to death, especially when it was too quiet, and anything less than noisy in war is too quiet. For the longest time he couldn't help but look over his small party of friends. Every one of them was here to help him, in the way his old team always had been...and most of all what got to him the most was the blue vixen that still lay sleeping with her head on his lap. Fox stroked her hair gently causing Krystal to slowly ruse from her sleep...

"Hey...you feeling okay?" Fox smiled.

The blue furred vixen yawned as she sat up, "Mm-hm..." She mused, "I feel better."

"Good...we need to go." Fox replied.

"Where are the others?" Krystal asked kissing Fox on the nose before finding her way to her feet.

"Creed took the others out to scout the areas around here..."

Krystal listened quietly to the air that was once filled with explosions and gunfire, "Why is it so quiet? It's actually...kinda scary."

"This is everything that I wanted to keep you away from all those years ago..." Fox replied as he stood up stretching his nearly numb legs, "You won't hear times like this very often on a battlefield. You come to expect the firefights and the bombs, and somehow it all becomes the norm. It's one of the more horrible truths to life."

As the two stood by a familiar set of animals stepped into the half dilapidated building, "We're clear for now but, we'll have to move fast." Creed said as he walked in with Silver, and Jared in step.

"There's a small group of Katinans gathered over of 5th and 23rd they'll be right in our way." Jared added.

Fox thought to himself for a moment, "Is there a way around them?"

Creed sighed and looked at the floor, "No..."

This time Fox sighed, "How many?"

"18 altogether..." Silver interrupted.

"Alright then." Fox said, "Get your gear Krystal. Everyone get ready and lets get going. I don't wanna stay here any longer than I have to.'

The night hid nothing to their senses but the sights that were around them, the smell of death and war were still fresh in the air. Krystal could understand why Fox had hated this so much, there was so much pain and suffering in the air, that to her telepathic mind it was nearly palpable. The feeling made her sick to her stomach, every so often this forced their group to stop so that the poor empathic vixen could catch her breath, sometimes vomiting from the pressure all of the negative emotion put on her stomach. The night air not only carried the smells of the dead, but also a bitterly frigid chill on the winter air...as they continued carefully walking down the streets Krystal felt something on her face, it was beginning to snow. The winter months of Corneria often covered the planet in a light blanket of white. The streets however were still barren, every so often one of the team's four would stumble on the remains of one soldier or another, some mangled by the relentless firepower of the opposing side...while some were nothing more than smears on the pavement left for someone to slip and fall down in. As they all approached a small intersection in the streets where a streetlight had been downed smashing a nearby vehicle, the area was barren and desolate, the complete opposite of the last time Krystal had ever seen this section of the city, in fact the small half-destroyed restaurant across the street from them was the location of her and Fox's first date so long ago...

"I spent so much time flying for Star Fox that...I never saw any of this before." She said as she approached Fox who had knelt down to check the vitals of a random soldier. It was too late for him, the raccoon's vitals were gone.

"Yeah...I know. That was basically my intention." Fox said, "I kept you airborne most of the time to keep you away from stuff like this. With your telepathy acting the way it is around all the emotions that war brings out in people...I didn't want you getting distracted at some critical point, end up getting hurt, or killed." The vulpine pointed out sighing as he stood back up.

"I got one over here." Creed called out.

Fox and Krystal rushed over to Creed's location where a rather young looking golden furred feline, who's body was wedged under a large piece of fallen debris. Only his upper body was free to move as the heavy object was crushing his legs...

"Who...who are you people?" He managed to ask weakly squinting from the blood that poured into his eyes from the gash in his forehead. The blood hindered his sight to no more than a blurry mess.

"Don't worry about it we're here to help." Fox said nodding to Krystal who moved to the animal's side placing her paws on his shoulder, using her healing ability to search for any serious injuries.

The cat paused for a moment, "I—I know that voice..." He said lightly, 'But...how...it's not possible."

"Don't know what you're talking about kid." Fox replied, "Never seen you before in my entire life."

"Voice or otherwise...Fox McCloud isn't the kind of person you forget about so easily."

Fox smiled a bit, "I think you hit your head a little too hard kid...Fox McCloud's dead."

The cat winced a bit at a sharp sting of pain, "You think I'd believe for one second that some lowlife bounty hunter could kill you?"

"So you think McCloud is still alive?" Krystal asked as she finished her search.

The cat smiled a bit, "Hard not to...when he's standing right in front of me."

Fox sighed, this kid was persistent, "Here get that blood off of your face." He said handing the cat a small handkerchief.

As the young cougar wiped the blood from his eyes Krystal joined Fox pulling him a little ways away from the injured soldier...

"Fox...his right leg is crushed, his tail's broken, and he has a few cracked ribs." She said lightly, "I managed to stop some internal bleeding, so he'll live but, we can't take him to the Cornerians they'd kill me and Creed on sight."

Fox thought for a moment, "Right, they think you two killed me. Don't worry I'll think of something." He said walking over to the young cat, "Alright, listen. We're gonna get this thing off of you...then my friend here is going to take you somewhere safe. Just take him to the ships when he's free Jared, don't take any risks. Alright Creed, get this thing off of him."

Creed had not trouble moving the pile of heavy debris that pinned the young feline to the ground, tossing it aside like it was as light at the air around it. Fox and Krystal looked over the feline's legs and Krystal went back to using her healing powers to look over the wounds more thoroughly, after a moment or so she looked to the young feline's face...

"They're both pretty badly broken. I can repair them, but I need time..." The blue vixen said.

Fox hesitated for a moment, "Jerad, get him to the arwings...Krys. I don't like this, but he needs you right now. Go with Jared and see what you can do about the kid's legs."

Krystal looked at Fox for a moment, before hugging him and kissing him, "You'd better come back in one piece."

Fox smiled insecurely, "Hey...don't worry. With Creed and Silver with me, there really isn't much to worry about."

The blue vixen tightened her embrace on the fox, "I guess you're right, just please, be careful."

Fox was hesitant to allow Krystal to leave his side, but after seeing Jared fight he was more than certain the two of them could more than handle themselves. He made certain to kiss her good-bye one last time before she headed off with Jared, helping the lupine to carry the injured feline back to the square where the arwings were berthed. While they headed out Fox and Creed followed their silver furred guide further along the streets until they came to a large uprising in the asphalt where a manhole lid once was now nothing more than a large hole in the ground. Fox stopped the group for a moment to scan the area, and when there was nothing found he dropped down inside the dank, dark, forgotten network of tunnels that ran under the city. The smell was beyond anything any of the three animals had ever experienced, it was foul to an extent that made Fox's stomach churn and threaten to expel it's contents...he somehow found it in himself to fight off the urge. Luckily the team all carried a small halogen light that produced a large radius of light clearing out a large portion of the tunnels in front of them, the catacombs had not been accessed by anyone for a time that Fox didn't even care to take a guess at...

"Alright..." Fox said pointing his light down the tunnel that would lead them north, "Slippy's report says it's this way. Stay on your guard. Never know what the fuck could be down here."

"So far just three idiots knee deep in shit." Creed chuckled stepping forward.

Fox laughed in response as he followed behind the large vulpine, "Yeah...I guess we'd have to be. After all the crap we've been through this is a disgustingly pleasant change of pace." He said laughing with Creed even louder than before.

Silver had no idea what they found to be so funny, they were up to their knees in refuse and sludge that smelled like a fate worse than death, stuck in the middle of two warring nations, looking for part of a weapon that could easily destroy them all...and the two of them were carrying on like this was some sort of game. Fox and Creed were anything but playing games, Fox had learned long ago that bringing some level of fun to a situation often lessened the stress and intensity of the moment, it was clearly something Creed had also learned from the military.

Their trek was nothing luxurious, at one point the small crew of animals was forced to rest while Fox looked back over Slippy's report. The tunnels seemed to go on forever, winding and twisting about in a constant effort to claim the three as permanent residents. However after their short break, and another hour of travel Fox stopped at a dead end. There weren't even any words exchanged between him and Creed as he simply looked from the wall to the massive red fox and nodded. Creed simply stepped toward the wall and rolled his shoulders and neck, before taking a solid step toward the wall driving his fist into the layer of bricks before him, the resounding impact causing their entire area to quiver in pain at the blow. For a short moment after the vulpine removed his fist from the hole the wall remained with a massive crater in it's center. The final reaction began with a single brick falling out of place, until the rest of the wall fell away leaving only a small section of the bottom still in tact, which Creed gingerly kicked away. Behind the large wall was what appeared to be an older style of door with an automated lock on it. Creed simply sighed with irritation before stepping forward and taking a firm grip on the frame of the steel bulkhead. As he strained himself pulling against the door, Fox and Silver could hear the sounds of the metal walls around the door groaning in protest to the force being applied before something gave and Creed's body jerked slightly back causing a loud metal pop...one of the rivets giving way to the vulpine's pneumatic strength. Soon several more of the sounds echoed through the empty tunnels before the entirety of the door simply gave way tearing from the wall and falling into Creed's arms who carelessly tossed it aside. Fox slowly stepped past the mangled door frame with his rifle pointed forward using the small light on it's end to give his halogen light a bit of extra light. The room looked like some sort of lab, there were desks and equipment everywhere in what appeared to be a massive single room, there were no signs of life at all, there were however several sets of skeletal remains some of which were still wearing their lab coats...

"I thought this place was abandoned." Creed said looking over one of the skeletons, "This one was stabbed in the head."

Fox looked over another body still sitting at a desk, "This one doesn't even have a head."

As the team scoured the area they found that not a single animal there had died of any sort of natural causes...it seemed like everyone in the room was hacked to pieces long ago. The team moved about the area searching every corner of the small place until Silver called Fox and Creed to a further corner of the room. The wall at the furthest end of the place was unlike the rest of the room, it was dark blue, and had the same writing as the door from Fichina. Fox took this moment to examine the staff Krystal had left with him when she left with Jared...however this one was a bit different, the slot for the staff was wider this time, as if to compensate for the spear head shaped blade at it's end. The Cerinians had apparently set the doors so that none would open unless the previous section of the blade was already connected to the staff. The door reacted as the last one had, sliding perfectly out of the way after the staff was removed form the door...the room beyond was no different from the last with the large uprising at it's center where the same arch of mysterious light shone on a slightly larger section of the blade that, like the last, hung in the air as if gravity had no hold on it.. Instead of waiting below, Creed and Silver both followed behind the young vulpine. As they approached the altar where the section of the blade hung over their heads Fox held out the staff, which like last time anxiously shot toward the blade. As the two sections collided a burst of pressure hit the three animals making it nearly impossible to breath for a minor moment as the blade floated slowly toward the ground.

The arched blade of the weapon was now half the length of the staff's shaft, the blade ending in a small point before hooking back toward the staff and continuing where the next section would fit, the center of this section was hollow showing the shaft of the staff at it's center...it was now more like a sword with a ridiculously long handle, or halberd of some kind. As Fox took the weapon in his paws, a short vision flashed through his mind of a blade wielding figure standing atop a mountain of bodies as the entire world seemed to burn behind it, a wave of strange energy flowed into his body that made his tail fur fan out against the air, as well as the fur on his back and neck. His breathing became slightly labored for a rough moment before he finally snapped back to his senses. Was the blade itself trying to tell him something? Or was this just another effect of his Cerinian blood showing itself in an odd way? He had no time to question anything at this point as he turned on his communicator holding his wrist up near his muzzle...

"Krsytal...get the arwings ready we have the blade."

Krystal's voice was thick with relief, "Good...I'll do it, just get back here ASAP, so we can get the hell out of this war zone."

"Will do....see ya soon." Fox replied closing the channel.

The three animals made a fast exit of the lab after Fox went through the old records and files that were kept there finding nothing of any real use. They rushed through the pitch black tunnels, their lights the only guide through the place, hoping that there would be no obstacles between them and their arwings. Their path led them back out onto the streets where they soon learned that it was almost once again morning, yet still dark enough to keep hidden by the shadows, however as they stopped for a short breather Fox heard a familiar sound of a weapon charging, he could feel the barrel brush against his fur...

"You gonna shoot me, Bill?" Fox asked calmly before shooting about with lightning speed whipping the barrel of his own rifle over the canine's eye, "What's the matter, Bill? Bosses not paying you enough to kill your best friend? Your paws are shaking."

The brown furred canine's paws were trembling violently causing his rifle to rattle, "Just shut up." Fighting hard against the tears rolling down his face.

"No...If you're gonna kill me, then kill me." Fox said dropping his rifle to the ground and using his paw to force Bill's barrel between his eyes, "Go ahead....what the fuck are you waiting for?" Fox said raising his voice, "DO IT!!! SHOOT ME!!! WHAT THE FUCK ARE WAITING FOR!?! KILL ME!!!" Fox screamed pulling the barrel of the rifle into his face hard enough to draw blood, which only mixed with the tears that fell at the thought of his own friend holding a gun to his face.

Bill's already shot nerves couldn't handle Fox's accusations as the weapon fell from his paws, clattering against the ruined pavement as the distressed canine fell to his knees, as powerful sobs took over his breathing. Fox simply shook his head at the animal before picking up his weapon and joining Creed and Silver. For a moment Fox stood there...

"Go home Bill...stop blaming yourself." Fox said closing his eyes and looking to the still darkened skies over the city, "Ayme loves you...that should be more than enough reason for you to be at her side right now, and not out here getting yourself killed."

Bill could barely even bring himself to speak, "Fox.......I..."

Fox lowered his head, with a sigh before slowly walking away from one of the oldest, best friends he'd ever had...Bill would be forced to deal with his actions in his own time. Fox would give the animal no peace of mind. Bill had betrayed him, something the two had sworn long ago would never happen, Fox supposed that Bill's actions were excused but, that didn't stop it from hurting and it didn't make it hurt any less. Fox was reminded of all the friends that he still had, and even worse off, he was reminded of how quickly they could all turn on him. Every man or woman has their price, and in most cases that price could be as simple as the life of a loved one...he was sad to say the he'd most likely have done the same thing in Bill's shoes had it been Krystal's life on the line. As the small group headed toward their arwings Fox flipped open his communicator and punched in a familiar com channel...

"Hey Fox...what's up?" A familiar voice emanated form the device on the fox's wrist.

Not much, Slip...hey listen, there's something I want you to check into...."

After a short walk Fox had explained everything he needed to the toad, "I'll see what I can do...but, I'm not making any promises...maybe dad can help."

"I hope so...Fox out."

As Fox's small team rounded the corner to the arwings the air was filled with the sound or rifles and firearms of all kind being readied in their direction. There was a mass of soldiers surrounding the area, Krystal and Jared were both cuffed and held to the ground at gunpoint while several soldiers attended to the young feline Fox's team had saved earlier...

"Mercenary Creed, you and Kursed are under arrest for the murder of Fox McCloud." A gray furred coyote shouted before pointing his weapon to the others, "Who are you two?!" He demanded.

"My name is Silver!" Silver replied, Fox remained silent.

"Who the fuck are you, take off the glasses and speak up!" The coyote shouted.

Fox slowly pulled the shades away from his face evoking a gasp of disbelief from the crowd of soldiers, "I'm just a dead man." He replied.

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**A/N: Sorry if the update took a little time...this writer's block is freak'n killing me. Anyhow here's chapter 53. BTW, I'm not gonna work on COF 2 as soon as I'm done here. First I wanna work off some of my side projects. So far I've got it pegged down to...**

**Legacy of the Fallen**

**Tails's Luck 2**

**Sword and Fang**

**Or Unchained Memories, which I will eventually do a complete recap on once it's finished.**

**Give me a little input on which you'd like to see finished first and I'll get that out ASAP, or at the least as soon as COF is done. Thanks for reading and thanks for the endless support...It's what keeps me going...**

_THE FOOTSTEPS IN THE DARKNESS - SKULLFOX_


	55. Chapter LIV

**A/N: Well...one more chapter down. Like...7 more, I don't really thing 60 is gonna do it. O_o, oh god more chapters. Meh, oh well...that'll just make it all that much better in the long run. I've also made my decision that the next fix I work on will actually be Tails's Luck 2 and Lament 2...they'll probably be worked on like this one and Relaxation...a sort of on again off again basis. Well, hope you enjoy the chapter...C'ya....**

**The footsteps in the darkness - SkullFox

* * *

  
**

**-Chapter LIV-**

_-Corneria Surface-_

They younger looking coyote still kept his weapon pointed at Fox...but, for the longest time they all remained speechless. How could it be possible for Fox McCloud to be alive when everyone was at his funeral? Several of the animals present even had the honor of carrying his casket to the grave site. Fox wasn't surprised that showing himself wasn't helping the captain of this small group of soldiers...

"Well...You at the very least know why I'm not dead." Fox said slowly hooking one arm of his shades into the collar or his shirt, "You're working for the bastards that started this fuck'n war aren't you?"

They gray coyote's expression only hardened, "Fine...I see how this is." Fox finally said walking forward a bit more, "Let them go...you don't need any of the others..."

A moment or so went by, any question still remaining in the soldier's heads were now completely gone. As Fox stood ready to take whatever fate was about to pass at the coyote's paws...something interrupted his sight...an orange and black striped tiger, one of his own soldiers stepped in front of Fox...

"I'm sorry, Sir...but, this wasn't in the briefing." He said dropping his weapon, "I ain't going home as one of the animals that killed Fox McCloud. You kill him, you're kill'n me too. What we did to him wasn't right...he deserved better than that, and if this is any way at all to repay him for what we did..." The feline cut himself off looking over his shoulder, "Then I'll gladly die with him."

The coyote sighed before repositioning his aim for the tiger's face, "Fine you can die first..."

This time a much taller animal stepped into the line of fire, a very healthy looking otter...

"You kill Max...you're going through me first, Sir."

The coyote growled a bit, "Get the fuck outta the way Lopez! That's an order!"

"No offense, Sir. But fuck your orders..." The tall soldier replied throwing his weapon to the ground.

The captain wasn't sure how to respond...as over the next minute every animal in his platoon had all positioned themselves in front of Fox, ready to take whatever they had to in order to keep the famous vulpine alive. Explaining the death of an impostor was one thing, but this was an entire platoon of men that he was charged with. The animal grew more irritated by the minute. Until a dark furred Minx stepped out of the group standing in front of everyone...

"This isn't right, Sir." The female soldier said, "Ever single person here, has done something to cause this war...even if it was only to fail to notice the obvious...but, there is no way any of us are about to have Fox McCloud's death on your heads. I'd rather you killed every one of us right now."

"And you think I won't?" The coyote asked pointing the weapon at her.

"You've never had the balls to pull that trigger..." A canine soldier said stepping from the group, "Tera here's got more balls than you..." He said patting the Minx on the shoulder.

Fox slowly pushed his way to the front of the group, "You think Omni's always gonna protect your ass. They'll toss your sorry tail to the side as soon as they find another fucking idiot to take your place. They don't care about anyone...power hunger fucks like the people in Omni only care about one thing and that's themselves..."

The soldiers all looked to Fox before looking to their ex-captain, "What's the matter Captain?" Fox asked, "Never tell your men the truth? Didn't tell them that Omni started this fuck'n war did you?"

The coyote simply stood there gritting his teeth...

"Awww...Did I ruin the surprise?" Fox asked.

"Sir?" The minx asked.

"He doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about!" The coyote shouted.

"Really?" Fox asked stepping toward the animal, "Then explain it to me please. How the fuck is it that I'm supposed to be dead and buried and, I'm standing right here in front of you, unless someone tried to cover something up, and fucked up?"

The captain remained silent...

"You lousy fucks...corrupted one of my best friends...someone that I've known and cared about my entire life, who not ever an hour ago, threatened to kill me over some false hope that you all gave him about his dying wife..." Fox growled stepping a bit closer to the coyote, "And now that all these animals know the truth they're all gonna pass it on. So go ahead, pull the fuck'n trigger...won't do you a god damn lick of good in the end. Whether or not I'm dead...the word will get out now, and as soon as it reaches Katina, Omni and everyone that works for them...are all fucked. Most of you'll run, and hide but, where will you go? You think Omni is gonna protect you? You'll be lucky to get dropped on Styx at the very least..."

The Minx from before stepped to Fox's side, "We've all chosen our place, Sir. It's right here with Fox...where every animal in Lylat should be...where we always should have been..." She said turning to Fox, "We're sorry...for everything."

Their former captain clenched his teeth together in anger so tightly that one could hear them crack under the tension. His company turning on him was more than he could handle...and with the Minx's back still turned the animal swung his rifle into place. A shot sounded out like thunder, echoing through the war torn city...the Minx's expression froze...but, there was no pain. Everyone turned to see the coyote fall to his knees, a bullet hold had pierced his left side causing him to drop his weapon. Off in the distance Fox made out Kaleb's familiar form, who made his way over...

"Where the fuck have you been?" Fox asked.

Kaleb propped his rifle over one shoulder, "I was trailing this group for a while...after I found the captain over there chatting with someone who took off in a small ship with what looked like a laser disc full of info..." The lion said holding up a small cd, "His flight had......turbulence." He smirked in a Falco-ish manner.

"I'm already starting to like you kid." Fox smiled as Kaleb handed him the small disc, "Could one of you men untie my crew here free?"

The Minx stepped forward, "I'd be my pleasure, Sir."

Soon enough, Krystal, Creed, and Jared were all standing and at Fox's side with the others. From the front of the group Fox turned and looked at the small group of animals that had defended him, and his heard swelled with pride. They didn't want to look at him, everyone had said such horrible things about the vulpine when he left looking for Krystal all those years ago, despite standing up for the, back-from-the-dead, hero...they were all ashamed for the things that were said, and done against the fox's name. Fox looked them all over as Krystal brushed up against him...

"You still care...I would have figured you'd all hate my guts for leaving."

The Minx looked only to her feet now, "We had no right...to say any of the things we said. Everyone in this city is guilty of it, and we all know it..." She said wiping her eyes before her tears had a chance to leave her eyes, "You and your team are the only reason a lot of us are still alive, and we owed you better than what we gave you..."

Fox stepped forward lifting the animal's chin so that she could see the smile on his face, "I never defended this planet because it was my home..." He said, "I defended it...because it's all of our homes...and that makes us all family in my book. My father thought the same way...and a family should always protect each other..."

The dark furred Minx was suddenly tossed aside, as a silver furred vulpine burst from the crowd quickly knocking Fox and Krystal to the ground before another gunshot rang in the ears of every animal in the area. Silver quickly tackled the coyote, causing the two of them to slide a short distance away before Silver stood back up, tossing a bloody lump he'd removed from the animal's throat aside. He smiled a bit toward Fox before shaking his head a bit, as his vision was failing him blurring in and out. He brought his paw to the right side of his chest before looking at his now blood soaked paw. He could barely make out Fox who managed to catch the poor animal before he fell forward. Fox tried his hardest to talk to the young vulpine but, there was no use as the poor animal's eyes rolled into the back of his head. He could hear their voices, if only for a moment, but as his vision failed him, Silver could only think about Roxy. Fox managed to catch the poor thing before he fell to the burning sand...

"Silver...Hey..." Fox shouted shaking the sliver vulpine, "Stay with me kid....Sil...."

It did Fox no good to call out to him as Silver's vision faded further, making it completely impossible to make out any detail in anything, only large patches of color that seemed to blend into each other. The silver furred fox managed to pull his muzzle close to Fox's ear just before his body went limp...the last word the animal muttered was the name of the pink furred lapin that was waiting for him to return from the surface...

The team spared no time in getting Silver up to the Nemesis. Creed took the horribly injured Silver in his arwing, while Fox and Krystal followed behind, leaving Jared and Kaleb to go over Fox's plan with the small platoon of animals that seemed desperate to get the war over with. Fox and the others however were making an approach toward the Nemesis, when Fox opened a com line with the massive ship. There was a wait before Jane's face showed up on the small digital screed produced on the command console...

"Hey Fox..." The cat said cheerfully, "What's up? You guys done down there?"

Fox looked over his shoulder at Krystal who was still looking out at the arwing off to their left, which was where Creed was transporting their fallen comrade...

"Listen...who's on the bridge with you right now?" Fox asked.

"Just me, Lament, and Mika..." Jane replied, "Why?"

The cheetah could clearly see the worry written across Fox's face, "Good...Mika. I need you to find Roxy and keep her away from the docking bay and medical bay until I say otherwise."

"Why would I do that?" The white Minx's voice asked in the background.

"Listen. Silver's been hurt..this could be a life or death thing...so keep her back she'll only get in the way. Krystal's gonna need all the space she can get. Jane, Krystal and Creed tell me you have a medical background..."

"Yeah...I thought about being a doctor for a while and went to Med school for a year or two..."

"Good, then don't panic or anything and get to the medical bay...Krystal may need some help with this one." Fox said, "She needs her room though, Lastrad, you stay where you are I'm expecting a call from the surface on what we're gonna do next, but, for right now we need to take care of Silver..."

Fox cut the line without another word, hoping that Silver would pull though this, his last wound while they were on the surface was only a scratch compared to the one he had now. He was happy enough when his arwing docked with the Nemesis, finding there was nobody to welcome them. He quickly made his way over to Creed's arwing where he found that the heavily bleeding vulpine was in the large fox's arms. Krystal rushed up beside fox checking over the poor animal. Luckily, thanks to her healing abilities, Krystal was trained as the team's medic back when she was a member of Star Fox...which only made her healing techniques that much more effective. The blue furred vixen lay her paw on the poor animal's forehead...

"He's still alive...but just barely..." She said withdrawing her paw, "Creed follow me."

Unfortunately as they approached the door to the docking bay a familiar pink furred animal rushed in...

"Silver I..." Roxy came to such a sudden stop that she nearly fell as she slapped her paws over him mouth, "SILVER!!!"

Roxy instantly tried to rush to Silver's side but was halted as Krystal stepped in front of her...Mika quickly followed in behind her...

"I thought I told you to keep her back?" Fox half shouted.

"I was trying...it's those fuck'n ears. She heard those arwings coming a mile away." Mika replied, "She may not look like it either but, she can run like hell."

Krystal took the rather distraught lapin by the shoulders, "Roxy..." She found that the rabbit wasn't listening and violently shook her for a moment, "Roxy! Listen! If you want to help him, I need you to stay back...I need all the room I can get...nobody is coming into the medical bay with me other than Jane. Do you understand?" She asked, "Because I don't wanna have to have Fox and the others hold you up like a prisoner, but they will if you get in the way...I know it sounds harsh but, I don't want anything to happen to Silver either..."

Roxy wiped the pouring stream of tears from her eyes as she looked back over Krystal's shoulder to Silver, "But---"

"No buts..." Krystal interrupted her, "It's either they force you back or you wait for me to fix him. Cuz if he stays like this he's going to die, and we don't have much time now get outta the way..."

It took everything the pink bunny had to move aside and allow Krystal and Creed to carry Silver off down the halls, falling to her knees in disbelief of what was happening. There was a large spot of the silver fox's blood on the floor that mixed with the tears that fell from her cheeks. Mika bit her lip for a moment, Roxy reminded her so much of Gwen when she was like this, that it hurt to watch it. The pale furred Minx helped the pink lapin to her feet...

"Come on..." She said guiding her to the door, "You can trust Krystal...I'm sure she knows what she's doing."

Just as the two made their way out of the docking bay the PA system sounded off with Lastrad's voice...

"Fox...there's a transmission on-line for you from a, Lieutenant Tera North, with Jared and Kaleb..."

"Thanks Lastrad...." Fox replied, "Let 'em know I'll be there in a minute."

"Will do." Lastrad's voice responded before the PA system cut off.

Fox made his way to the bridge where he found the dark furred Minx from Corneria displayed above the holographic imager. She seemed patient enough waiting for Fox to show up. The lost hero found his seat in the center of the bridge and looked to Lastrad...

"So. How's the kid doing?"

Fox sighed and shook his head, "We don't know yet. Just leave it to Krystal she knows what she's doing."

"Sir...I'm sorry about your crew member..."

Fox thought for a moment, "He's tougher than he looks...I just hope he's as tough as I think he is."

The Minx sighed a bit, "Would you like to tell me about this mission that you've put together, Sir?"

"Yeah...and if it pans out the way I planned it should stop this war in it's tracks and turn it right back in Omni's face." Fox replied, "Now listen up..."

**-Meanwhile elsewhere on the Nemesis-**

After Creed had taken Silver to the medical bay, he made his way to his room where he made certain to clean the young vulpine's blood from his fur. As he exited the bathroom into his own room, the large fox began to dig through a pile of clothes on his bed...he always preferred to sleep on the floor, something about being too comfortable while sleeping made him a bit leery on closing his eyes. He quickly pulled out a pair of, oddly enough, clean blue jeans and managed to pull them all the way up before his bedroom door slid open. Mika hadn't even noticed she'd walked into the wrong room until she saw the mammoth crimson vulpine, who had only just picked a large tank top out of his clothing pile...

"Can I help you?" Creed asked tossing the shirt over his shoulder and sliding a pair of dog tags around his neck.

Mika was impressed, he looked even bigger without the shirt on, "Yeah...I was headed to Gwen's room to check on her and I guess I just wasn't paying attention to where I was going...sorry...umm..." The minx froze up as she realized she didn't know the fox's name.

Creed chuckled before stepping toward her and extending his paw, "Creed...Creed Tasser..." He said shaking her paw, "And you are...Mika...right?"

"Mikasha Eese...a lot of my friends call me Mika, or Venus." Mika replied smiling as she shook his paw in reply.

"I think I like Venus better..." He smiled as he released her paw pulling his shirt on, "Gwen's room is just two more doors down." Creed told her as they both exited the room, "Nice meet'n ya." He said walking off down the hall in the opposite direction.

Mika however found herself still standing there for a moment watching the huge animal lumber down the halls until he disappeared around the corner that led to the ship's kitchen. After a moment she shook her head, and then headed off down the hall toward Gwen's room. As she entered the room she found Gwen sitting on her bed looking out at the far off blur of explosions in the distance around what, to her, was only the small, blue orb that represented Corneria. She looked over her shoulder slightly until she realized that it was only Mika walking into her room...

"Hey, Gwen." The white Minx said making her way over to the tiger's side, "You feeling any better?"

Gwen's voice cracked with slight laughter as she looked at Mika, "I'm fine...I just needed some more rest. This ship has a lot of memories on it."

"What are you smiling at?" Mika demanded taking a seat next to the feline and feeling her forehead, "Are you feeling okay?"

The young feline's bottled up laughter erupted from her paws, which she'd slapped over him muzzle to try holding it all in as a new small set of memories of Mika's came through to her...

"What the hell are you laughing at?" The white Minx demanded half laughing herself, as contributed by the cat's infectious laugh.

"Y-y-you..." Gwen managed to spout out amid her laughing fits, "Y-yo-you were checking out...the big guy in the hallway!"

The Minx's white fur did nothing to hide the dark red blush that flared her face into a deep red color...

"There's nothing wrong with liking him, Mika."

The white Minx stood up, deciding that the cat was feeling much better, "Just looking kid...Men with that much muscle, they usually don't leave much room behind for brains."

Gwen smiled, "Oh really?" She smirked, "I'm a woman too...and you were staring at him like he was a side of beef."

Mika smiled a bit, "Yeah...well maybe I wouldn't mind taking a bite or two..."

Gwen turned red this time as the two of them broke into laugher for a good minute or two. Gwen couldn't stand it, it felt like her sides were going to split open. She couldn't even breath properly, her lungs hurt so much. She could always expect that sort of thing from Mika, she didn't care whether or not it was embarrassing to herself or others she would speak her mind about just about anything...and most of the time had no problem expressing herself or how she felt. Gwen could always count on the pale furred Minx for a laugh when she needed one. After a bit more time, the Minx wiped a few tears from her eyes...

"Oh god..." She breathed, "I really needed that."

"I heard about that Silver person..." Gwen said as she wiped her own tears away, "Is he going to be okay?"

Mika could only sigh and shake her head, "I don't know...he looked pretty bad when they brought him in. There was blood everywhere."

The white furred feline looked back out the window toward Corneria far off in the distance, "I hope he gets better..." She said, "I like Roxy. I don't want to see what would happen if he died."

"I know what you mean..." Mika said, "I don't want to see anyone on this ship die. These people, they're just like us...there's just more of 'em. Look I'm gonna go get something to eat...you want anything?"

"No..." Gwen answered, "Lastrad already brought me lunch."

"Well...I'll come back again later." Mika said leaving the room.

Creed had at the meantime been cooking whatever it was he could find...unfortunately, unlike his skills in combat, his cooking was the closest thing to a health hazard you could get from cooked food. At one point he thought he'd killed Krystal a short while after they'd first started working together. For the longest time he stood there staring at the small pile of food sitting on the counter, still unprepared; it was mocking him, taunting him. He was one of the strongest animals in Lylat, and one of the most feared bounty hunters the Trinity Accord had ever seen...but, something as simple as cooking a small meal for himself was something he simply couldn't muster the know how for. He mainly blamed his impatience for his lack in the ability. Soon the hiss of the kitchen door opening and closing caught his attention, he looked over to the door only to see Mika walking into the kitchen, she barely managed to catch a glimpse of the side of his face as he moved back into the cooking area...

"Hello Creed...what'cha cooking?" She asked.

Creed looked threateningly at the food sitting before him, "Me...." He barely whispered.

Mika instantly burst into laughter before slapping her paws over her mouth, in reply to the comment she'd made earlier about taking a bite out of him. Creed found it strange that she'd just burst into laughter like that but, maybe she just found something funny about what he'd said. Mika finally peaked around the corner, where she noticed the look on Creed's face, as if he were ready to smash whatever he could get his paws on...

Mika sighed shaking her head, "Mind if I..."

"Please." Creed interrupted her before she could finish.

The Minx laughed as Creed moved aside allowing her to take his place, "What's wrong? Never learn how to cook?"

"Actually no...the military usually kept us all fed pretty well." Creed answered moving out of the cooking area and heading toward the window.

Mika thought about all the meals she'd prepared for her friends, "Well...that didn't stop me from learning. I was Black Ops for 5 years..."

Creed scoffed at the thought, "No kidding? I was Katinan Black Ops for about 6 years, and spent some time with the 133rd Flight division for the Air Force there."

As the smell of the fresh food began to fill the air Mika thought for a moment, "Odd...you don't come off as an Air Force kinda guy. Their mainly those stuck up pretty boys that only love themselves and they damn machines."

"Yeah...well my best friend used to be one of those idiots." Creed said still looking out the window, "Johnny Weathers..."

"Kaleb's dad?" Mika thought for a moment, "I never knew he was a pilot."

Creed smiled as he looked out to Corneria in the distance, "He was a damn good pilot...but, when we were in the war we both went down. He never flew again..."

After a short while the Minx brought out two small plates of food sitting them on a table, before taking a seat...

"What's your story?" Creed asked taking his own seat, "Cuz you don't come off as the type that just out and joins the military."

Mika smiled at the thought, "Well...my brother was in the military. He had this grand design for me after mom and dad died and he got stuck raising me. Seemed he wanted me to be a military girl so that I could defend myself, but, to be honest I think he just wanted me to settle down with some military man. He did try to introduce me to quite a few guys from his unit." She chuckled a bit, "I turned 'em all down of course...most of them were more into their career than anything else anyhow. Luckily thought, I got place in the one unit I already knew someone in..."

Creed thought for a moment, "I'm guessing that was Lastrad. You two an issue or something?"

Mika laughed, "No...well once. About 2 maybe 3 years ago, but it just didn't work, we were just too different. The whole relationship was like trying to force a square peg into a round hole..."

Creed scratched his chin, "I once managed to squeeze a small car through an open manhole."

Mika burst into laughter, "I don't think that's quite what I meant."

"Seriously though...what is someone like you doing out in a place like this?" Creed asked.

Mika thought about it for a moment, "Alright...It's about Gwen really. Me, her, and Lastrad...we all met when we were little, her and Lastrad were especially close. She never really touched anyone, or let them anywhere near her, but, with me and Lastrad she didn't seem to mind so much...and she grew up with Kaleb so he never really effected her. When I found out she was going to join this team, I went along..I've always felt a little responsible for her...like a big sister sort of thing. What about you, why are you here?"

Creed chuckled a bit as he eat a bit of his food, "Well...I guess you could say my problems started when I was about 10..."

**-One hour later outside the medical bay-**

Roxy could only stand outside and watch as Krystal and Jane did all they could to keep Silver alive. The door was locked, so her only real means of seeing anything was through the small window in front of her. She'd been standing there for so long that her legs felt like they were completely asleep, but she still refused to move from that spot even when the captain of the ship stepped up beside her. He didn't say a word, he simply looked in on the whole scene with a heavy sigh. She could tell that for some reason he blamed himself for Silver's situation. As the two of them sat by they could see Krystal coming out of the usual trance like state that her healing usually caused, Jane caught her under the arm and helped the blue vixen keep her balance as they headed toward the door. As they stepped out of the room Krystal was all but completely limp in Jane's arms. Fox quickly took the cheetah girl's place, and as he pulled the vixen to her feet she looked to Roxy with weary eyes that showed she was half unconscious...

"Go......ahead." She managed to say, "Just...be easy...with him."

The two vulpines watched from the window as the pink bunny walked slowly to the silver fox's side, running a paw over the patched wound in his chest before sitting down beside the bed. Several tubes were hooked to the animal's body; one in his nose, one in his mouth, and several ..a nearby heart monitor was the only sign that he was still living...

"Well?" Fox asked looking to the vixen in his arms.

Krystal took a few short breaths, "That bullet...it came really...close to his heart. He'll be fine, I hope. But, it's impossible to tell when he'll wake up...If he ever dose."

Fox sighed deeply, "Well...I hope for her sake he does." He said hoisting her up a bit as she had begun to slip to the floor, "Come on...you need to get some rest. You're practically out on your feet."

His words were lost, however as he found that the cerulean vixen had already passed out in his arms. Fox sighed and lifted the vixen into his arms before carrying her off to her room. While Roxy stayed by Silver's side, she had her own worries when the fox had left the ship, but she had convinced herself that he would be fine. How she wished she was right. The pink furred lapin ran her paw over the critically injured vulpine's hair. She silently promised the unconscious fox that she would not leave his side until he was awake, no matter how long it would take. The heartbroken pink lapin eventually cried until she fell limply against the side of his bed. Fox eventually came by to see how she was doing, only to drape a small blanket over the poor thing's shoulders. He stopped for a moment to push one of the pink lapin's ears away from her face only to see the matted trails that her tears had left behind on her face. He felt a definite pang on responsibility for the both of them, especially Silver, seeing either of them like this hurt him more than any of the others, spare for Krystal, could possibly understand. As he stood there for a moment, silently hoping for the silver vulpine's safety, his attention turned to the sliding door of the medical bay, where a white feline entered...

"Oh...hi Gwen." Fox said turning back toward Silver.

Gwen kept her voice as low as possible, "Is...is he going to be alright?"

"I......I don't know..." Fox said lowering his head.

As he turned to leave the room he could see that even Sia, who knew nothing about the young fox had come to visit him, even if it was from behind the glass window next to the room's door. Fox wiped a stray tear away from his face as he stepped out of the room. This was the worst possible time for such a tragic injury in the crew,...even Krystal's healing had it's limits, there was little more anyone else could do for Silver other than hope...

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**PS: If there are any mistakes that I obviously missed in this chapter...please point them out, and I'll get to them when I get back from visiting my family...thanks for the constant help, and tons of support. You all kick ass...^_^**


	56. Chapter LV

**A/N: Well...at least I got off two chapters before the writer's block managed to kick in again...even thought this was more of a filler. To be truthful this just may be a bit longer than 60 chapters...55 and I'm still not at the end yet. Though it is a lot closer than I'd hoped for. Thanks for all the support...hope you all like the chapter...filler or not. And C'ya hopefully real soon...**

_The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox

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**-Chapter LV-**

The hours gave way to days...and oddly enough the fighting slowly died down between Corneria and Katina. Fox went on to discover than the head of the Cornerian high council had fallen across some damning evidence that the war was all a set up for a hostile takeover planned by the Omni corporation, and had set up a meeting with the world leaders of each planet to set things back in accordance to the Trinity Accord's original agreements. Fox's mind however was in other places at the time of all of this news...Silver was still in a coma, and wasn't showing any signs of waking up. Roxy seemed to spend every waking moment of her time at her young love's bedside afraid to leave him alone for any span of time, as she feared it would be the last bit of time she could have with him still living...even if he couldn't hear her. The entire team seemed depressed at the loss of the young vulpine's companionship, he was quiet at most times but, his presence was dearly missed. Most of the crew visited the silver vulpine's room daily, some on an hourly basis...while others took a slightly different approach to their grieving: Jared and Shera spent their time in the docking bay or in their quarters working on several projects they planned on doing as soon as the battle against Omni was over. Roxy maintained her constant vigil over Silver. Sia had found something to occupy her time, training with Krystal who had decided to teach the already gifted fighter as much as she cared to learn. Fox managed to find solace in a new friend with Lastrad and the white tiger that refused to leave his side, who'd gotten much better over the last few days, eventually finding it within herself to leave her quarters again. Kaleb on the other hand found himself doing little more than scouring the Nemesis room by room, exploring everything he could find aboard the massive vessel. Fox's mother spent her hours mostly on the ship's bridge, waiting for the team's next move but, mainly in deep thought about her own next step. And even Creed hand found someone to latch onto...though to Jane's great distaste, the large vulpine had begun to spend an abundance of time with his new friend Mika. However, despite the pleasant nature of everything, the somber mood about the ship did not lift...everyone felt the missing presence of the silver furred vulpine that had saved his captain's life...

As the days piled on...Fox decided that the team was not going to pursue the next portion of the blade until Silver either recovered, or died and was given a proper burial. It had been a week since the day Silver had been shot, and all hope had begun to fade from the team. Krystal had come to the point that she could not even enter the medical bay without crying, and at some point simply stopped visiting, hoping she'd not have to see Roxy's saddened expressions anymore. The pink furred Lapin spent her days and nights at Silver's side, if not for the others often bringing her food, she'd have never even left to eat anything. Her back hurt from the way she'd been sleeping, slouched over in her chair with her head laying on her folded arms on the side of the hospital style bed. She so often dreamed of the vulpine waking up, that she often woke up calling his name, only to see that he was still begins supported by the hoses keeping his breathing at it's proper rate. She suddenly jolted upright from her sleep, Roxy could have sworn she had heard Silver call her name but, sadly the silver fox before her was still unconscious. The pink furred bunny cursed her own dreams for constantly tormenting her, but she also cursed herself for constantly believing in them. Roxy sighed as she ran her paw over Silver's head, before looking to the clock above the door of the medical bay. It was only 2 in the morning. Realizing this the pink lapin placed a small kiss on the side of the half dead animal's muzzle before pulling her blanket over her shoulders and laying her head back down hoping that she would soon find the sleep she'd lost thanks to her own dreams...or where they nightmares...she wasn't sure anymore...

**-Meanwhile: The Kitchen-**

Creed sat by looking out the window of the ship at the dead of space beyond the kitchen's windows, his arms had needed a bit of maintenance ever since lifting that large chunk of building off of the soldier on Corneria...he was certain he'd only thrown off the calibration or something but he'd find out once he got to working. His right arm seemed just fine, but his left had some issues with some of his more strenuous motor functions. He was lucky enough that the animals that had made the arms a bit less noticeable had explained everything about his metal arms flesh-like sleeves. Whatever type of unheard of polymer they were made of, it would instantly bond with itself, this made repairs to the material almost completely unneeded, he simply did as he was advised when he'd mentioned it; he used a sharp knife to cut the sleeve about his bicep, making certain that he had something to separate the material, or it would simply fuse back together with itself again. Once he knew it was safe to do so, the large vulpine simply pulled the sleeve off like it was a very long glove of some kind. He slowly, and delicately began to work off the small maintenance panel located on the underside of his forearm, they were rather difficult to remove for someone that was new at it, or had not technological know-how. Digging about the insides of the device and constantly moving about his fingers looking for whatever was wrong. As he did this the snake-like hiss of the air lock door to the room brought his attention to the white furred Minx, who's eyes were still half closed. Her fur was horribly matted from her sleep, and she was wearing a plain white tee shirt and sweatpants. As she let out a rather long winded yawn. The pale furred animal slowly stumbled, half asleep toward the sink claiming a glass of water before heading back toward the door...

"Not even gonna say hi?" Creed asked quickly, causing the Minx to falter, dropping her glass. However she managed to skip the glass back up into her paws splashing the cold water all over her...

"CREED! What the hell is wrong with you!?!"

"I'm sorry Venus...I couldn't help it." Creed chuckled.

Mika began to shiver as the cold water that she'd splashed herself with. However she managed to ignore it as Creed's eyes went wide and he quickly twisted his neck to force him to look at the wall on the far side for the room. She could have sword that his face had taken on several new shades of red that his fur was not known for, but, the white fur under his muzzle was a bright red now...

"Creed?"

For a moment the Minx looked at the large fox wondering what was wrong until she realized the obvious and looked at herself. She was wearing an all white tee shirt, that was now as clearly see through as a sheet of glass thanks to the water that now covered her. The Minx's entire face washed over with a red that rivaled even Creed's crimson fur crossing her arms over her practically exposed breasts, before rushing out of the room. Her absence didn't really help Creed though, his blush was still present even after she'd left the room. For a moment he thought about what had just happened, and a light chuckle tugged at his shoulders...which eventually broke into a loud laughter that made him happy most of the ship's quarters were soundproofed. Even after his laughter subsided, Creed found completing the maintenance of his arms difficult as he would randomly have a momentary flashback of the whole scene causing him to stifle back more laughter...at least long enough to finally replace whatever parts had been messed up. As he finally finished the repairs on his arms, Creed carefully slid the arm's cover back on, and watched with curiosity as the still soft material slowly sealed into itself as if it had never been separated from his arm at all. He wondered what the material was actually made of, but he gave up on that once Mika entered the room again, this time wearing a light red shirt...

The pale furred animal had been shocked to a state of being awake by the nearly icy water that she'd spilled on herself, "Sorry about that. I didn't mean for you to...you know..."

Mika smiled a bit as she walked toward the fridge, "You mean "you didn't mean to see my tits" right?"

"Yeah...that too." Creed replied chuckling a bit at the term she'd used to describe her chest, "but, I was referring to the whole water thing..."

The blue eyed Minx headed to the table sitting down with a small sandwich, "You want one?" She asked, she'd already forgotten about the shirt problem, not like he didn't look away...at least he had a bit of respect.

"Thanks but, no. Already had something..."

After taking a bite or two of her sandwich, Mika looked to the large fox, "So what are you doing up at this hour anyhow? Other than the work on your arms..."

Creed grimaced a bit, "Couldn't sleep...to be honest, I'm worried about Silver. The kid's tough as nails but......"

"I understand what you mean. It's not easy to see someone you care about in that position."

Creed sighed, "This is why I used to work alone..."

Mika set down her snack, "You don't mean that Creed. Nobody wants to be alone all the time...but, this is the line of work we all chose, people get hurt, it's gonna happen to us just as much as it's gonna happen to them."

"You sound like you really know a lot about the subject..."

Mika chuckled, "Yeah. Well...I didn't live alone for very long but, I can tell you that I never want to go back to that life again, nobody to talk to, to care about you..."

"Nobody to hurt you, or abandon you..." Creed interrupted her, his mind slowly slipping back to what had happened between him and Maria.

Mika thought for a moment as she studied Creed's somber expression, as his line of sight shifted to the wand the space beyond it. He'd not told her about that segment of his past, it was something he'd rather keep it to himself. The rest of their time there Creed remained silent, while Mika finished her sandwich. Even after finishing her snack she found that Creed did very little other than sit there and think...she'd never actually met anyone that had so much on his mind at any one time, and furthermore she'd never met anyone that chose to keep everything that pained them to themselves. She was certain that somewhere along his past something had happened that had shaken his faith in others, or himself...but, in either case, he shut most others out, allowing them to be a friend by still managing to keep them at a fair distance at all times. Why? She had no idea. After a bit longer the pale furred Minx covered her moth with a single paw, as she let out a yawn that made her eyes water a bit...

"You should get back to bed...try to get some more sleep." Creed said caringly.

Mika was a bit irritated that he was so hard to read but in the end he was right, "Yeah. Maybe you're right..." She said standing up, "You should do the same thing. Staying up all night like this......it isn't healthy..." She said with another yawn.

"Yeah...I'll try. Nice talking to ya...like always." Creed replied.

"Same here..." The Minx responded walking toward the door, "Good night, Creed."

"Good night."

**-8 hours later-**

-11:06am-

Fox sat on the bridge, in his usual place, it was odd that Krystal had still not woken up, but, her training with Sia was getting rather intensive and he supposed that she was simply exhausted. As he sat in his usual seat, leaning to one side and supporting his head on his fist, his thoughts were in the same place as everyone else's......fixated on the injured vulpine that still lay in the medical bay, quite possibly dying. A large holographic display in front of him showed a large map of the Trinity Accord's area of influence, which spread from Lylat, into the reaches of, Dan'jas, Krazoa, and Stygian. As big as they were, would stopping Omni in Lylat even effect the company itself in a whole? Just how far did their influence reach? And worst of all, would any remnants of Omni attack Lylat once his team was done with what they intended to do? As he thought about it the vulpine pressed a few buttons on the armrest of his chair, which caused the image to zoom in until he was only looking at the Stygian system...this was where the next section of the blade was supposed to be. On one of the 4 unexplored moons of Styx, the only known planetary prison ever developed. Fox found it to be a stroke of luck that the segment of the blade was not on Styx itself, landing on the planet was hazardous enough as they ships would instantly be overrun with inmates trying to steal a ride off of the planet...

Oddly enough, none of the planet's 4 moons were ever explored or studied...which would make finding the next piece of the blade an adventure in it's own right. The littler things that Fox attempted to use to block Silver's injury out of his mind however, began to eventually dwindle, until he was forced to deal with the fact that he may have, for the first time, lost a member of his crew. With that thought finally the last one in his head, the fox covered his face with his paws...it was a hard truth to handle. As he sat there, blaming himself for what had happened, the door to the bridge opened, allowing a familiar smell to fill his senses. Even when Krystal made her way his side to hug him he still hadn't moved from his current position. After everything he'd been through, he still blamed himself for the fate of his team over all else...

**-14 hours later-**

-1:28am-

Roxy's dreams had woken her two or three times since she'd fallen asleep a few hours ago. Luckily since then she'd found a bit of peaceful rest for the last few hours. Her sleep turned out to be perfectly uninterrupted, something she dearly needed...but, as she slept she turned her head to one side, a loud thump startled her out of her sleep. Her heart was racing, apparently her dreams had decided to start toying with her grip on reality. Or not, as she realized the sound was something that had often startled her from her sleep before. Sometimes as she moved about in her sleep, her ears would lay across her face, the slightest movement would cause it to fall against whatever surface she was sleeping on at the time...

The bunny sighed, "Fuck'n ears...." She cursed the appendages sitting up causing them to take on their normal half stiff stance atop her head, as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and smacked her dry lips together, "Need water." She groggily murmured to herself.

The pink bunny looked to the pitcher of water she most often kept in the room with her but the found it was bone dry. As she looked over Silver, she realized that there hadn't been a change in his steady breathing in over a week, and he still hadn't woken up. She for the first time in what seemed like forever left the room and headed toward the kitchen.

To Silver the world was nothing but pain and darkness, but, it slowly faded into a bright light...one that made his eyes hurt. He had heard of such a light before, Fox had told him about people seeing such a light when they died. He didn't want to die. What would happen to Roxy, he promised her he'd come back. As he thought about this he realized that, the light was not ethereal...but, it was dangling over his head. His eyes slowly began to form very narrow slits, he could feel a horrible pressure in his throat that made him want to vomit and every part of his body felt as though it was completely numb. His vision was incredibly blurred but, one small moving object caught his attention, a pink blur that moved toward the door. He tried his hardest to call out to her but, he found that he couldn't make a sound...

Roxy staggered through the halls of the Nemesis, with her water pitcher. The night and day had gone by so slowly, that she could barely tell one form the other...the whole place seemed so desolate compared to the daytime when you could hear footsteps everywhere and randomly run into one of the ship's other crew members. She could care less though, she only needed water, and now that it was on her mind something to eat. The trip she took spared nothing but a few short minutes, as she headed back toward the medical bay...as she entered the room however she yawned rather deeply causing her to close her eyes, not giving her the chance to notice the fact that several hoses were no longer hooked up to Silver's body. He'd also lay back down, thinking that Roxy had just left to go to bed. As she finally opened her eyes again she looked onto Silver's face. His mouth was free of any hoses, which now lay beside him. As she looked on in disbelief waiting for this scene to end and for her to wake up again...the injured vulpine's eyes cracked open, and the corner of his mouth curled into as much of a smile as the pain would allow him...

"Roxy...?" He muttered not certain if it was her or not, his vision was still horribly blurred.

The pink furred lapin instantly dropped the pitcher of water, as well as her plate of food placing her open paws over her muzzle as a trail of tears instantly rushed from her eyes...

"Silver!"

She quickly rushed to the silver vulpine, wrapping him in her arms, causing the poor thing to hiss in pain as he gritted his teeth, from the pressure of her body against his sore chest. He managed to ignore it however and wrapped his nearly numb arms around her, he was never happier to be in so much pain...

"I thought....I'd lost you..." Roxy managed to whisper past her tears, "I love you...you idiot."

Silver simply pulled the lapin closer to him, "I...love you too, Roxy."

**-Early that morning-**

Fox had been awake long enough to get something to eat and a small cup of coffee, he was still beating himself up though, shouldering all the responsibility for what had happened to Silver...speaking of which. Fox slowly began to realize that he hadn't been in to check on Roxy or the injured for several days, not with all the work he'd been going over with all of their plans in order. He sighed heavily as he made his way down the halls, one by one until he found himself in front of the elevator that would take him to any deck of the ship he wanted. The medical bay of the Nemesis was nothing like the one aboard the Great Fox, or the Dark Star, instead of it being a large room, an entire deck in itself was specifically left for the treatment of the injured, which often brought to scale just how much larger the Nemesis was than the standard class Dreadnought that he was used to manning. His hallowed footsteps carried through the open halls as if the ship itself was one massive acoustic amplifier, turning each individual footstep practically into a clap of thunder inside the vulpine's head. As he approached the door to the room Silver had been stationed in he noticed a shattered pitcher of watter on the floor and instantly rushed for the door, fearing that the worst had happened. Fox let out a sigh of relief as the door opened. Instead of finding Roxy crying over the body, the two were bundled up in each others arms, all of the hoses and IVs had been removed from the silver vulpine's body. As Fox stepped forward, the sound of his boot step caused the silver fox to turn his eyes to Fox. Fox found himself only able to smile at the silver fox, who did the same in response before, nuzzling his muzzle back into it's spot across Roxy's neck. Fox let out a heavy sigh before slowly walking out of the room. As he slowly made his way back toward the elevator, his favorite cerulean colored vixen stepped out only to be stopped as he placed his arm over her shoulders, leading her back into the elevator with him...

"I was gonna check on Roxy and Silver..." She said in protest.

"Don't bother...they're both asleep. Apparently he woke up a few hours ago."

Krystal let out her own sigh of relief, she was simply happy that all the effort she'd put into healing him had paid off, "Thank goodness. I was afraid for a little while that he wasn't going to wake up ever." She said hugging Fox.

Fox kissed her on the forehead, "Yeah...so did I...I'm glad we were both wrong." He said, "Lets get to the bridge and set a course for Stygian. The trip should give him more than enough time to recover."

"Where is the piece at?" She asked as they broke their hold on each other.

"Somewhere on one of Styx's moons. We'll have to do a bit of research before going after the segment of the blade though."

Suddenly Creed's voice came over the intercom, "Fox...you'd better get your ass to the bridge...We've got a hell of a problem."


	57. Chapter LVI

Author Notes: So very sorry if you read that the first time through...apparently I left some stuff in there I was supposed to erase...but, in my defense I was half asleep...still though, that is really no excuse...anyhow hope this flows a little better and once again sorry for my own screw up...C'Ya...

* * *

**-Chapter LVI-**

Fox hurried to the bridge with Krystal right on his tail...this was the last time they wanted any kind of problem, they were just getting ready to leave in search of the next piece of the blade. The two dashed through the halls trying their hardest to make it to the bridge just in case something serious should happen...Fox was more worried about the ship being attacked though, with Silver in his current condition there was no way of assuring himself that everyone would be alright should something bad happen. As the two finally dashed into the bridge, they found that the entire crew, spare Roxy and Silver were waiting for them. Creed was positioned next to the Captain's seat where he was looking out at the dead of space. When Fox approached his seat, Creed made his way over to the vulpine's side. He was oddly surprised as the holographic imager in the middle of the room displayed what looked like a newscast...knowing that they'd never call him if it was any less than an emergency Fox waited for the news as the unseen newscaster spoke...

"...It would appear that between the hours of 11:36am and 1:28am...Kew City was stricken by an unknown regalia of forces. Though this mysterious armada was diminutive in size, they quickly overtook Kew City's meager defenses and have since stationed themselves inside the city itself. There is little information on the crisis other than the distress signal that was sent out by one Falco Lombardi, ex-member of the fabled Star Fox mercenaries. It is yet unknown whether or not there have been any casualties but, many animals fear for the worst...We'll have more on this invasion as the story develops..." The newscaster said, "In the brighter side of the news however, there has been a calling for a cease fire between Corneria and Katina who, by means of a young Lieutenant and her squadron of men, discovered a conspiracy set up by the Omni corporation. The entirety of this company, which has supplied Lylat with radical advances in technology for the past 45 years, has been stationed for a major inspection from the high council. Thanks to a small massive list found by the Lieutenant mentioned earlier...one Tera Fjord, who was recently promoted to Captain of her own squad of men...35 members of Omni's conspiracy have already been arrested, and are on their way to the Styx Penal Colony in the Stygian system....where they will spend the rest of their lives for treason, as per the Styx Colonial Act set in motion by none other than Marcus James McCloud, grandfather to the recently past Fox Mc........."

Fox quickly cut off the transmission, "We're going to Kew." He said, "MIA...get this thing to Kew, as fast as possible. Knowing Falco he's probably already gotten himself in no end of trouble."

"Fox are you sure about this?" Vixy asked, "You go there and get involved, we could just be piling on the enemies."

"I've been making enemies since I was still a teenager, mom." Fox replied standing up, "But, Falco and Katt are down there...so is Lucy."

"I understand, Fox." Vixy replied, "I just wanted to make sure you weren't rushing blindly into something serious."

Just then MIA's voice pulled echoed into the room, "Course set for planet Kew...ETA...approximately 5hours."

"Good...everyone make sure you get rested up. Cuz we're going down there as soon as I can get a lock on Falco's location."

Fox didn't stay in the room any longer, instead he headed out of the room, Krystal followed beside him looping her arm around his as they walked. Creed smiled at the sight, he was always happy to know that Krystal was happy again since she'd always been so depressed as Kursed...seeing her openly express herself now without trying to make some ridiculous story up to cover her own feelings. It was for that moment that Creed turned to the rest of the animals on the bridge...

"Well he's right, this would be a good time for everyone to get some sort of sleep...it is almost 2 o'clock."

Agreeing with the large vulpine, everyone made their way off the bridge, but, as they headed down the hall Mika realized that Creed had turned down another hall, heading away from his quarters...and in a small fit of curiosity set out to follow him. Mika followed Creed for quite a while, until the crimson fox disappeared into the docking bay. After a moment or so of arguing with herself on whether or not she should go inside...the white minx finally decided to do so. She found the large fox, preforming maintenance on one of the many arwings in the docking bay. At the current point in time Creed was only half visible as part of him was underneath the large fighter...Mika was a bit confused, as she walked over to the large mechanic. As soon as she was standing next to him, Creed's paw reached out from under the fighter...

"If you're just gonna stand there at least hand me that wrench."

The pale Minx placed the tool in Creed's extended which pulled back under the small ship, "I thought you said we should all get some sleep?" She asked kneeling down beside him.

"Yeah...I did." Creed assured her,

"Then why are you in here?"

Creed sighed heavily, "Can't sleep..."

"And why's that?" Mika asked.

Creed sighed again, "It's no new development. On average I get about 2 hours of sleep a night, sometimes I just never go to sleep."

Mika fond this as an excellent opportunity to screw with the large fox's head, and knelt down beside him and gently drug her finger along his abs, "Well...maybe you just need someone to tire you out." She mused in a rather alluring tone.

Creed slowly pulled himself out form under the arwing with a serious expression, "Your room or mine?" He asked with a large smile.

Until now the snowy furred Minx had been laughing, now however her face was as bright red as Creed's fur. The Minx's expression had changed radically as well, her little joke had completely backfired. She eventually found it in herself to laugh along with him, she'd tried so many times to actually embarrass him with her little jokes but, so far none of them worked. As Creed went back to work, the Minx did what she could to help...though she admitted, mechanics were really Lastrad's field. Though there were things she did understand about ships and tech of some kinds, her place was with the weapons. There wasn't a gun or blaster built to date that Mika couldn't tear down and put back together, not only in record time, but, most likely better than it originally was. As Creed took a slight break, Mika made her way to the ship's wings...

"So...still using the T&B H-1s?" She asked looking under the wing at the large vulpine, "Can't say that I blame you...but, the Vulcan 9.96ers are a lot better."

"True..." Creed said rubbing a sore muscle in the side of his neck, "but, if you know that much about it, you'd know that the Vulcan can overheat a lot faster than the T&B models...the T&Bs are also a lot less random and shoot straighter."

The Minx had to admit she was impressed with the fox's knowledge, "Okay smart guy." She said making her way around the ship's wing, "What kind of weapon system should a ship like the Nemesis use?"

Creed looked about for a moment rubbing his chin, "Lets see here..." He said, "Miridion class Dreadnought. I'd say a Dual-corr TAZ hammer would do more than enough damage to anything this ship could consider a threat."

Mika smiled, "Going for the classics again. What about a side arm? Any preferences there?"

"Nope...don't really care much for guns." Creed replied slapping his arm, "These are the only guns I've ever really needed. With the proper strength and know how, anything can really be a weapon...just as lethal if not more so than any gun or blaster."

"That's an interesting ideology...where'd you pick that up?" The Minx asked.

Creed sighed as he wiped his paws clean of the oil that had gotten all over him, "The one man in this universe...that I can openly say that I both love and hate..."

"Who?" Mika asked.

Creed threw the rag back to the ground and went back to work, this time in the cockpit of his fighter, "My father..." He said as he climbed into the cockpit of his arwing, "He told me when I was still a kid, _"Creed...a gun is just an excuse not to get your paws dirty. They're nothing but a tool for cowards and lowlifes."_ I understand what he meant, even though I don't necessarily agree with his words. People are different, just because you like guns, and know how to use them doesn't make you a coward. I think it's more on how you use it, that determines whether or not you're a bad person. God only knows, I've done my fair share of horrible things. I've killed people that didn't deserve to die, and I've done things that shouldn't have been done...but I very rarely used a gun of any kind, by his logic that would automatically make me a decent person just because I used my paws."

As Creed hung upside down into the cockpit with his head under the control console Mike peeked in, "You are a decent person Creed."

Creed could see by the expression on her face that Mika was quite serious, but, chuckled at the compliment, as he reached out patting the top of her head, "Thanks Venus...but...you don't need to convince me of anything. I know what kind of person I am...I may seem all nice and calm now, but...trust me, when the situation changes...so do I..." The Minx simply looked at him confused, "Just watch, you'll see. Most likely sooner than later...Lia didn't have to say it, but, it was what caused her to leave the ship, and stay on Sauria. She sees me for the monster everyone else does now..."

Mika leaned in against the side of the cockpit, "I don't think that way about you at all..." She smiled, "None of us do."

Creed sighed as he stopped in his work for a moment, "I know..." He said mussing her hair a bit, before going back to work.

Mika looked on as Creed opened a panel under the console, "Hey, Creed. Have you ever...you know...been in love?"

"I guess you could say that..."

"You were serious?" She asked.

"Yeah." Creed said rather unenthusiastically as he fiddled with the wires.

"If this is annoying you I can stop." Mika replied.

Creed smiled, "I'm not annoyed Venus...I'm just...not used to anyone wanting to hear anything about me. Most people don't really care."

After a bit of time the two were done with the full inspection on Creed's personal arwing...he wanted to paint it as well but, found that there would be no real time for such a thing. Instead since neither him, nor Mike felt any urge to sleep now...the two decided to head off to the ship's kitchen for the remainder of the night. Oddly enough as they entered the kitchen, they found a solitude silver furred fox sitting at a table, with a pink furred bunny asleep in her seat across from him. As the two entered the room, Silver lifted his index finger up to his lips, receiving a nod from Creed...

"Creed..." He whispered, "Do you think...you can carry her to her room for me?" Silver whispered, "I can't lift her...my whole body hurts."

"No problem buddy." Creed replied lifting the pink lapin out of the chair.

Mika stayed behind in the kitchen as Creed carried Roxy to her room, he didn't really think Silver had any intention of going to his own room but, then again he didn't blame him, he'd have preferred sleeping next to someone he cared about to. After the rather long walk, due to the fact that Silver's ever step caused him pain. He'd expected to find Mika waiting for him when he returned to the kitchen but, as the door slid open he could clearly see the white minx collapsed on a table the very same way Roxy had been earlier. He couldn't help but smile, and nearly laugh at the sight; her mouth was hanging open as a small pool of drool had spilled onto the table. The large vulpine simple lifted her off her seat and began to carry her down the hall...

"Wh-what are you doing? I'm not tired."

Creed chuckled, "Just shut up and go back to sleep."

**-Kew outer Aerospace-**

-7:08am-

Fox woke to the sight and smell of the blue vixen sleeping in his arms...it pained him to wake her...she looked so peaceful sleeping there, that it seemed like a crime to interrupt her. However, he had to do so, there was no telling how bad Kew City was going to be, but he was certain that he'd need everyone's help to find out what was going on. As he placed a soft kiss on the end of her nose, the cerulean vixen's eyes fluttered open...

"Hey...we gotta get ready." He whispered with a smile.

Krystal let out a soft yawn before pulling Fox closer to her, "Nooo..." She wined.

"One way or another you're gonna have to get up."

Krystal simply shook her head, "No I'm not."

Even as Fox lifted the vixen out of the bed the chilly air on her naked fur did little to ruse her. Fox simply rolled his eyes, if she didn't want to wake up, he'd make her wake up. He chuckled to himself as he could feel her breath shallow out as she slipped back off to sleep. He made his way into his room's bathroom, sliding the shower door open with one foot and closing it after stepping inside, He then used his big toe to press a button on the shower panel, then waited for it. The shock the cold water sent through the vixen's system causing her to instanly panic flailing about wildly, nearly causing Fox to drop her. When she finally caught on to what was going on she looked to Fox gasping for the breath the frigid waters had stolen from her...

"FOX!!" She shouted.

"Hey you didn't listen when I said you needed to get up."

Krystal punched him lightly, "I heard you perfectly well..." She said shivering, "At least turn off the cold water, I'm awake."

Once the two were through showing and dressed, they headed for the ship's kitchen where, they were happy to find a meal had already been prepared. The entire crew spare a singled out few were all waiting. It seemed that Mika, Silver, and Roxy, were all still sleeping. Fox made a short head count as he sat down to breakfast...

"Someone wanna get Mika out here?" He asked, "Silver and Roxy are staying." As everyone ate Fox filled them in on their mission, "Now look. None of us are getting hurt down there this time. We will not be splitting up at all, instead we're going to go about our business, getting a room at the corner of Rondell and Fourth, in the center of the north side of town. There's no telling how long we'll be there, so make sure you come prepared..."

"Well who all's going this time?" Jane asked.

Fox thought for a moment, "Well...Silver is out of commission for now. So he's a definable no-go...and I don't think I'm gonna be able to get Roxy away from him again, anytime soon...I wouldn't doubt it if she blames me for what happened in the first place." He said, "Well that leaves the other, 11 of us..."

"Actually nine..." Jared said standing up, "Shera has convinced me that there's something that I really need to do...." The lupine said, "I'm sorry Fox, bet...she comes first in my book. Even if it's the universe itself at stake. Not only that...it's something I've been running from for a long time now."

"Whatever it is...it must be important. Just make sure you come back in one piece alright?"

Jared smiled at Shera before looking back to Fox, "Hey...I'm tougher than I let on. Just because I don't like to fight doesn't mean I can't do it."

"I know...I've seen what you can do. Everybody's got their demons. This is a pretty bad time for this though."

Jared sighed, "I know...but, it's something I've been running from for way too long."

"Sounds fair enough...you just be careful alright."

The team finished breakfast and before they could all make it to the docking bay Jared was gone...Shera on the other hand had decided to stay behind. She said he needed to do, whatever it was they were talking about on his own but, everyone could tell that it killed her to watch him fly off on his own. As she stood there on the docking bay Fox approached her...

"You sure you aren't coming?" He asked, "Having an O'donnell down there would be a big help."

Shera smiled, "No...I'll be fine up here, someone has to watch after the ship after all, right?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Fox agreed.

The team slowly boarded their respective arwings...which shot out of the docking bay one after another, until the only three left were Shera, Roxy, and Silver...who could only manage to limp around as his body refused to allow any full ranges of motion just yet. The silver fox and pink furred lapin turned to leave the docking bay but, the gray furred wolf simply stood there a bit longer...staring at the small port, where only a thin shield of energy separated the docking bay itself from the space beyond it...

"You'd better come back in one piece..." She whispered to wolf that had left long before the others.

After landing in their designated star port, Fox leaped out of his arwing, shortly followed by Krystal who stepped over beside him. The port was a lot more populated than the other times she'd been there, which meant only one thing...lockdown. Now that the team was there chances were they wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. It was as Fox scouted the area with his eyes alone that his eye caught the shortest glimpse of something. The roof of the building, as with all star ports, was only open space for the landing crafts. What Fox saw was standing just on the ledge of the rooftop for only a split second...in fact he nearly convinced himself he hadn't seen the black furred fox at all, if it weren't for the horrible feeling that he had creeping down his spine...

"I feel him here Fox..." Krystal whispered grabbing Fox's arm, "He's here...isn't he?"

"Yeah...Arlex is here." He whispered back, "He was just watching us...I barely even saw him. Go warn Creed this is a lot more serious than we anticipated."

* * *

**Author notes: Okay this looks like its in a little better order than before...I hope I didn't miss anything. Please, if you notice anything amiss point it out, and I'll fix it right away. Thanks for the help and support ...**

_The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox_

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	58. Chapter LVII

**-Chapter LVII-**

Fox and his rather large team made their way through the city, there was little difference between now and then, the last time any part of the team had seen Kew. There was hardly any sign of fighting or a take over of any kind...but there had to be a reason for the lockdown, and the fact that Arlex was there meant something was definitely not right. They found their way to a small, familiar hotel where they purchased a number of rooms for the night, they all gathered in one of the small rooms; which were not very large but, not so small as to make such a meeting crowded and uncomfortable...

"Well..." Fox started, "First off...we've got four rooms, split 'em up however you see fit...but, this one's mine."

"My team only really needs one room. We can adjust." Lastrad said.

"I need my space..." Creed added, "I could use my own room."

"Then that can leave the last room for Jane, Sia, and myself." Vixy said.

Krystal looked about for a moment, "Well that settled itself quickly enough...now what are we going to do about our stalker? I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep at night knowing that Arlex is out there watching us."

"Me either..." For replied, "My question is...What is his purpose here? Is this whole thing just some sort of an elaborate set up?"

Creed stood up from the room's rather cheap, brown sofa, "He's got a point. There's something about this whole "attack" that just doesn't feel right at all."

Mika thought for a moment, "Who is this Arlex guy? We've heard of him from Syler, but never saw him. He sounds like bad news."

"Worse...We don't know much about his motives so far...and that makes him a lot more dangerous that Syler. Arlex seems to want the staff but, he also doesn't seem to want it that badly...or he'd just take it...I doubt we'd be able to stop him."

"And why's that?" Kaleb asked.

Creed sighed, "Because...Fox already killed him."

Mika looked at Creed like he was crazy, "What?"

"A while back we were on Fichina...looking for the first piece to the blade...he attacked us, and Fox here, snapped him in two like a fuck'n toothpick. And somehow...we recently ran into him at the main complex when we threw the four of you in that cell."

Lastrad's team looked back and forth from one another, "Main complex?" Lastrad asked only reciveing a shrug from Mika's shoulders in response.

Krystal had a hard time with this, "Wait...that wasn't Omni HQ?"

"That was only Alpha complex...Beta got taken out a while back."

"We're aware of that...that was Fox too." Creed replied.

Lastrad looked over to the light red furred vulpine. How could one animal cause that much destruction?

"I was taken to Beta complex after it was torn up...how the hell could one animal do that?" The pale wolf asked.

Krystal looked to Fox who had altered his gaze to the table in front of him, laying her paw on his shoulder, "We don't know. He just......did it."

Lastrad took a moment studying Fox, Krystal, and to a lesser extent Vixy, "You're all one of them...aren't you? Cerinians..."

Fox sighed, "I don't know what I am anymore."

Vixy looked away from the poor animal to meet Lastrad's gaze, "Yes, Lastrad. Krystal, Fox, and Myself are all Cerinians. Fox being only half Cerinian." She answered, "Now...how is it you know about the Cerinians?"

Gwen looked up to the white vixen, "There......was this vixen, back home...she always talked about her home planet. A place called Cerinia...she was capable of the strangest things."

"Well...there were several small ships that made it off of Cerinia...not to mention all of the Cerinians that were taken aboard the Nemesis...that is why Gwen saw so many blue foxes in her visions."

"Up until recently Fox has never shown any part of his Cerinian heritage...accept for his heightened senses. Which would explain why he passed through the Flight Academy so quickly." Vixy said.

"Fox is on record of acing the flight exam..." Kaleb said, "Last person to do that since Marcuse McCloud......"

Vixy sighed, "Yes. James talked about his father all the time...he was disappointed that he could not do so himself. I imagine he must have been extremely proud of you." She said turning to her son.

"Dad was already dead..." Fox said still looking at the table top.

There was a prolonged silence in the room, every animal could tell by the hurt in his voice how much Fox loved, and missed his father, but, finally the silence was broken...

"Well..." Creed said, "I think we should start searching for your friends before Arlex does whatever it is he's here to do."

Fox stood up, "You're right, Creed. This is no time to get all emotional. Lastrad, take several people with you, and check the south end of town. Creed you take someone with you and cover the east side of town. Someone come with me and Krystal. And several other can take the west side. Falco is a blue feathered avian, about 5'10 and he should be with a pink furred Kewian and a pink furred hare. The cat is pregnant too...so everyone, we need to find them fast. There's no telling what may happen otherwise." He said, "Keep all of your communicators on at all times, and report your location every hour."

"Good plan." Creed said nodding in agreement to the quick thought out routine, "Anyone that's coming with me lets go." The large vulpine said heading out the door.

Surprisingly to Fox, Mika turned out to be the first to follow him, followed by the young cheetah girl Jane.

"Gwen and Kaleb can come with me." Lastrad said standing up from his seat at the table.

"Watch yourself the south side may be a little crazy..." Krystal warned them.

Lastrad chuckled, "Don't worry about us...though we may not be on par with the Star Fox team, we're more than a decent match for any mugger or gang member that decides to fuck with us. Even Gwen is a lot tougher than she lets on." The white furred wolf said, "Alright lets go."

After Lastrad's team headed out the door, Fox looked about the room, "Well that leaves the four of us..." He said looking from Krystal to Vixy, then to Sia. "I don't like the idea of two, two person teams. So you three cover the east block...and I'll take the south."

"No..." Krystal retorted, "I'm not letting you go out there alone. That could be just the opportunity Arlex is waiting for."

"True, but, whatever his cause is, if he wanted to fight us...he wouldn't be waiting for it...he'd have done it right there in the hanger." He said, "He's here for some other purpose...and I hope I'm wrong but, I think I know what it is..."

"What?" Krystal asked.

"He wants the sword." Fox replied, "But, he's not coming after it. I'm willing to bet he's here for the same reason that we are...he's looking for one of those three...leverage for when we get a hold of the blade. And I'm more than certain that he'll go for the most vulnerable one...Katt."

"Then we need to hurry." Krystal said, "She's more than 5months pregnant...all this stress could send her into premature labor...or worse..."

"Alright..." Fox said standing up.

After splitting up, Fox made his way to the far north side of town...the business district. It wasn't really Falco's style, and had absolutely nothing for him or his family...and that was why it seemed like the perfect place for them to hide. Falco would never go to a place where he'd be expected to go in such a situation rather, he'd run to the last place anyone would think to search. The search through the city was fruitless however, Fox's only way of knowing how long he'd been searching was the fact that he'd received a call from his entire team three times, signifying that they'd scoured the city for three hours so far. The minutes seemed to pass like hours to Fox, there was nothing more important to him at the moment than the lives of his friends. Falco, Katt, and Lucy were all like family to him...and there was no way he was about to leave them out there with the slightest chance that Arlex could be looking for them. Even when Sol finally set, Fox kept to his search...even after his entire team had called informing him that they were all headed back to the hotel for the night...he kept searching. His body was exhausted, but, it didn't matter...he wouldn't stop until he'd found them.

More hours passed as the lone vulpine walked the streets circling the city completely within his several hours walking the dimly lit alleyways and streets, until he finally stopped by a lone fire hydrant to catch his breath and give rest to the blisters on his feet. As he stood there looking about his surroundings he noticed something far off in the distance. A single dilapidated building far from the outskirts. Fox knew the building, it was an old church, from far before the city itself was ever built, still composed of wood and stone. The city had refused to tear it down for some reason...

"Church......" He whispered to himself, "The last place Falco would ever go."

The pained vulpine turned to the communicator on his wrist, "Krystal...come in."

"Yeah, Fox. You finally coming in?" The vixen's voice came back.

"Not yet...I'm gonna check one last place first. Okay."

There was a very worried tone to the vixen's voice, "Don't push yourself too hard Fox. We still need you."

"I promise to come in if this one last place doesn't pay off...okay?" He assured her.

"You'd better. Or me and Creed will come out there and drag your ass back here."

"Yes ma'am." Fox replied with a chuckle before cutting the line.

After his short rest he made his way out into the grassy hills outside of the city. He noticed the veritable difference in the air and atmosphere between, the city streets and the still wild land outside the city. Here he could feel the cold breeze that blew through the mid-night air, as well as the tall, wet grass that brushed against his pant legs. He also was given an idea of just how broad the expanse of land was between the city, and the still untamed lands that Kew had to offer. After a bit of a walk the vulpine found himself atop a large foothill, which gave him an outstanding view of the land that nearly took his breath away. The city had diminished in size far behind him, but the tree laden hills far before him held more beauty in one glance than he could ever manage to take in. Nowhere in the depths of space could he ever find anything like it. However, he was forced to shake the feeling off and continue on his trek through the hills until he found himself atop a large hilltop.

The building was large, but, it was also old...the once pristine wood had worn away all of it's luster and color, only to be replaced by a dull listless brown shade. The windows had been boarded up, and even the stone steps were chipped away by the tests of time. And high above him, in a large tower that stood high above the church, there hung a bell, who's song went unheard for god only knows how long. This would be the best place for anyone to hide, a forgotten relic of the past sitting solemnly on a lone, castaway hillside. As he approached the door to the building Fox realized that the boards had been removed that would at one point keep all from entering.

The door made an eerie creek, as it's neglected hinges protested the one moving it after so long of sitting idol...a sound which echoed through the halls of the old place of warship. The interior of the building was as dark as any place the fox had ever seen. Luckily a small light hitched to the shoulder of his uniform for such an occasion illuminated the ruins within the room. Pews had clearly been vandalized many years ago, as they were shattered, broken and strewn about the large room, pages from old hymnals were layered over the floor like confetti ridden streets after a parade. There was no god here...even he seemed to have abandoned the structure once it had lost it's uses...

"Falco? Katt? Lucy?" He called making certain his blaster was drawn, "Any of you here. It's me, Fox." He half shouted, "Oh god please be here..." He whispered to himself.

"FALCO! KATT LUCY!! IF YOU'RE HERE SAY SOMETHING!!"

Though he didn't hear the replay he wanted, something did gather his attention. A low, hollow chuckle that echoed through his head, sending a cold, arid chill down his spine...

"I'm afraid they cannot answer at the moment." A familiar voice rode on the cold air, "They are......tied up at the moment."

"ARLEX! I SWEAR THAT IF YOU HURT......."

"You should calm yourself McCloud...this is a house of warship. You should be using your indoor voice. We don't want to be causing the mother-to-be any undue stress now would we?"

Fox barred his teeth at the unseen fox, "Where are they?! Why are you doing this?!"

"Calm yourself boy." Arlex's voice rang through the church, "I have no intentions of hurting them..." He chuckled, "Even I have my morals...and though they'll all meet their end...killing pregnant women is a bit, below me." He chuckled again, "After all, were is the point in that, when there will be no life left in this universe soon enough?"

"What the fuck are you getting at?!" Fox demanded whipping his blaster about searching for the animal, "Where are they?!"

Arlex could be heard tip-toeing across a wooden surface, however the echo through the halls would not allow Fox's ears to zone in on his location...

"You will be reunited in due time." Arlex replied from his hidden state, "This is merely a small warning to show you just how dangerous this little adventure of yours is..."

Fox suddenly caught the source of Arlex's voice spinning about and aiming his blaster at the now illuminated black fox. He was knelt beside a familiar pink furred feline who lay on the ground, her arms and legs like the falcon and hare against the far wall. They were all tied up and gaged. Fox motioned toward him only for Arlex to bare his claws over the felines swollen stomach...

"I wouldn't..." He warned Fox, "She may live through it...but, will the little ones? Though I will live through the shot, I assure you the feel of death is none too pleasant..."

Katt's tear filled eyes seemed to beg Fox to get the animal away from her, "What kind of monster are you?" Fox asked.

"Monster? MONSTER?!" Arlex shouted, "Let me tell you about monsters." He said standing up, "They kill, they ravage everything they possibly can, wipe out entire civilizations with their......weapons. You are all the true monsters here not me. Your entire existence is based on lies, you destroy everything you touch, even the things you strive and claim to protect you destroy and lay it to waste. Even something like this very building...a place that was meant to be exulted as a holy place. Completely destitute and forgotten...just like everything else. As soon as it no longer has use to you, it's simply cast aside as if it never where..."

"Why would a psycho like you care about any of that?" Fox demanded still aiming his weapon veinly at the black vulpine's head.

Arlex sighed releasing a light chuckle, "My people...were one of those, friutless endeavors that you, so called civilized people decided needed to be pushed aside. You Cerinians are all alike...bred and trained for combat from the moment you leave the womb. You see nothing wrong with the lives you end, but, you question the very same actions by all others! As if you are the sole reason for all life in the universe...giving you the right to give and take it at your leisure...while condemning those who fight back...just as the Cerinians did to the Vyrexians all those years ago...just to demonstrate their little toy."

Fox looked to the animals on the floor, fearing that this whole conversation was only to stall killing them, "You're outta your fuck'n mind. You know that?"

Arlex chuckled maniacally, "True. Perhaps I am...maybe we're all a little absent in our own minds...but, when one has seen death as many times as I have, I suppose it simply comes as it will. I should say though, your treatment on Fichina was rather brutal...even for a Cerinian. Tell me, was that truly your own strength? Where I in your position I would wonder a great deal where such a strength would come from all of a sudden." He said stepping forward, "Would you like me to explain it to you? I know a great deal about Cerinian culture...after all, I chose no other planet as my basis of operations...until that......" He paused as a huge grin inched across his face, "...little accident."

Fox was stunned, "It was you." He said in an unbelieving voice, "You destroyed Cerinian..."

Arlex's only reply was another cruel chuckle...

"Why would you kill so many innocent people?" Fox asked.

"Innocents?" Arlex scoffed, "That word has no meaning in war. You should know that McCloud."

Fox scowled at the mad vulpine as he drew a bit closer, before Arlex stopped with a large smile on his face...

"Do you believe that I do not know you are back there Krystal?" He asked, "Very clever Fox. Leaving your communicator on like that. With her telepathy she'd know right where to find one so close to her."

"She's not the only one..." Fox grinned.

Arlex simply smiled before the side of the building gave way to a monstrous force, sending massive shards of wood and debris flying through the air, forcing Arlex from his position into a row of ruined pews, causing him to slide across the warped planks of wood that composed the floor beneath him. As the animal stood he looked onto Fox who now stood before a large group of animals. His entire crew had come to his aide as soon as they'd heard Arlex's ranting. As the animal stood up he forced his neck to either side, both resulting in loud pops. The animal grinned before licking a bit of blood from his lip. Creed took this as an opportunity to rush the black furred fox, who simply smiled. It didn't even seem to move as the mammoth animal's fists slammed into the floor uprooting large splinters of wood around Arlex's body. With what seemed like no less than a lightning fast movement Arlex had somehow managed to, by only the use of his feet, flip Creed about onto his back now with his foot on the large fox's throat, threatening to crush his windpipe within a moment's notice...

"Odd...I thought you were the strong one." He taunted Creed with his usual sadistic smile.

Before Arlex could utter another syllable, a white furred animal shot through the air leaving a trail of small cuts along Arlex's face. Her movement was faster than almost any animal Fox had ever seen...he even dared to compare it to the speeds that he'd seen Silver move at. Lastrad only smiled from where he stood, he's seen Mika angry before, and it had never really paid off for the one she was pissed at. Her motions seemed to be flawless and she was wearing a pair of odd gloves unlike anything Fox had ever seen, they covered the entire backs of her paws in a thick metal plate. Yet every expert kick and punch she threw was pushed aside with a single paw, swatting away every blow she threw. Until the enraged Minx leaped into the air spinning horizontally several times before driving her heel into the back of Arlex's head, jutting his neck forward with a loud crunch. Unfortunately, once on the ground again Arlex's powerful paw clasped around the Minx's neck choking off her air, while his head seemed to snap back to it's original position, resulting in the same loud snapping sound...

"My my my...aren't we feisty?" Arlex smiled at the Minx who grasped at his paw attempting to relieve the pressure around her throat, "Very an impressive display. It hurt...quite a bit."

As the others watched on, unable to comprehend what they'd all just witnessed. Mika's body finally stopped fighting and went limp before a surprised movement caused Arlex to drop the white furred animal. Creed seemed to instantly make it to his feet swinging Arlex overhead by the ankle. The helpless animal was driven into the floor creating a large hole in the planks of wood causing them both to hit the ground beneath, before Creed swung his new rag doll back into the air. Arlex's limp body passed through a corner of the nearby wall, before swinging back into the floorboards once again tearing them asunder. Creed's punishment ensued for several more meetings of both the ground, well as the nearby wall of the building before finally sending the animal skyward, the limp body smashing through the roof of the church. Creed slowly climbed out of the hole he'd created kneeling beside Mika...

"Hey." He said tapping the side of her face. She quickly came to coughing hard at the feeling of the burning air rushing past her bruised windpipe, "Thanks..." Creed smiled.

"No problem..." Mika replied in an incredibly light voice, with her paw on her throat.

Suddenly Creed's ears twitched against some sort of sound, and he scooped the Minx into his arms, diving out of the way just as the bell from the tower above crashed through the ceiling. Covering the area in a thick cloud of dust. As the dust cleared however a forlorn figure stood atop the bell clapping his paws lightly...

"I stand corrected..." Arlex's voice said through the dust, "That hurt a great deal more than the kick." He laughed.

"What the fuck is this guy?" Lastrad whispered to Fox.

"I am as a wise fox once said... _"Just a dead mean"_..." Arlex replied.

The words caught Krystal's attention, "Has...he been following us?"

Her only reply was the same sick grin the animal seemed to always wear...

"Does it matter?" Kaleb asked, "How can we beat someone that can take treatment like that and not even bat an eye at it?"

This time Lastrad rushed forward, Vixy, Krystal, Fox, and everyone else rushed in on Arlex...including Creed and Mika. All seeming to attack at once, unfortunately, the black vulpine refused to move from his spot. In mere seconds, each animal was flung from their position. Most of them skipping across the floor, until they came to a rest on the dirty floor...whereas Kaleb was thrown through a boarded up window, and as Krystal hit the floor her staff turned sword slid across the floor. Gwen, who'd had been staying back as she was told notice Arlex approaching the weapon and reached for it. Arlex stopped however as the pale feline's breathing became panicked. Before her she could see Arlex, but, in front of him standing over the weapon was a shadowed figure of a fox, wearing a blatantly sadistic smile, his pale white eyes nothing more than soulless pits. Her breaths grew more and more labored as she fell to her back scuttling away from the area...

"GET AWAY FROM ME!!" She screamed falling to the ground and wrapping her arms around her head, "GET AWAY!!!"

Arlex could only look to the weapon then to the white tiger, with a smile, "So...at least one of you can see the truth." He chuckled, "I've wasted my time here."

Before anyone could recover, Arlex was gone, leaving Gwen huddled in the corner repeatedly screaming, Get him away from me! Lastrad was the first one to the poor feline's side, but, even her friends could not make the vision dissolve, the apparition of whatever forlorn creature had shown itself to her still stood there over Lastrad, wearing the same sadistic smile. Gwen's breaths eventually became so panicked that she finally went limp in Lastrad's arms. As everyone recovered, Kaleb made his way through the door...

"Well...that hurt like hell." He said sarcastically, "Guy kicks like a fuck'n truck."

Creed slowly climbed to his feet, "Trust me..." He said wiping some blood from his forehead, "His punch isn't any funner." He added looking to Fox, "Did that even seem like the same person?"

"He was just fucking with us last time." Fox replied helping Krystal to her feet, "And I don't think he was taking thing seriously this time..."

"But...why didn't he go for the blade?" Krystal asked.

"I don't know...but, I think Gwen saw something in that thing she really shouldn't have." Lastrad replied, looking over the unconscious feline.

"Well...lets get these three untied and get the hell outta here..." Mika said using Creed as a sort of crutch, as she seemed to have an injured leg, "I don't like the way he left so fast."

As they all chatted a lone cheetah crawled out from under a downed pew, "Hey...is he gone yet...or dead?"

"Where the hell were you when we were getting our asses kicked?" Creed asked.

"Hiding!" Jane shouted, "I'm not a fighter...what did you want me to do? Boob him to death!"

Somehow Fox managed to laugh, "Before we head out. Someone's gonna have to go look around, make sure it's safe in the city. As soon as the coast is clear we'll head out. Hopefully that whole attack on the city was just a ruse to get us here...but, I'm not holding my breath."

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**Author Notes: Well...that's 57 chapters down...I seriously think I'm gonna have to re-evaluate how many chappies are gonna be in this thing. Cuz at this rate it seems more like about....say 65 just to be safe. I wanted it to pan out to exactly 60 chapters but, to do that I'd have to cut this whole thing short and I don't wanna do that. Well....hope you enjoyed the chapter...I know I did. Like always thanks for the support. R&R and I'll see you all next time...**

_The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox_


	59. Chapter LVIII

**Author's Notes: Well it's official, this will definately NOT be done before chapter 60...maybe 65 but, I'm not holding my breath. Anyhow, this is getting into the final rundown and is opening up for Part 2, which so far has no subtitle other than simply Chains of Fate 2, I'll possibly think of one later but, meh. Anyhow, hope you all enjoy the chapter. Even if there isn't much to the account of action...this chapter will start the final parts of the storyline for COF and the truth behind everything that has happened so far. So R&R and I'll get up 59 ASAP. C'ya l8terz. ^_^**

_The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox

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_

**-Chapter LVIII-**

When he finally found himself able to stand, Falco studied Fox's face for a moment, he'd been told that the vulpine was still alive, and he'd hoped that they were telling the truth, but, something about Fox's face made the bird's blood boil. As soon as Fox turned to face the avian his head jolted to one side, leaving a painful sting in his jaw. Falco could have sworn he'd just broken his knuckles but, he simply glared at the vulpine.

"Two years?" He half whispered, "Two god damn years you go missing! Make us all think you're dead! And this is how you show yourself?! Peppy's dead because of this bullshit!"

"I'm sorry."

Falco fought every fiber of himself not to punch him again, "You should be. All of this is because of you!"

Fox could only look at the floor before turning and slowly walking out of the building, he had already blamed himself but, to hear it from one of his own best friends, was a bit more than he could take.

"That's right!" Falco shouted, "Walk away! Just like last time!"

Krystal stepped in front of the blue falcon with a pained look on her face, he never even saw her paw coming, as her slap hit him hard enough to send him to the floor.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!" She yelled, "Are you so much of a fuck'n dick that you can't even see how much he blames himself for all of this!?!" She shouted wiping away a few tears, "I wish you had a fuck'n heart! Cuz if you did I'd fuck'n rip it outta your chest!" She continued running toward the building's entrance, "FOX WAIT!"

Creed could only look down of the fallen avian and scoff at him, "Huh. Some friend you are." The large fox said exiting the church.

Lastrad walked by carrying Gwen in his arms, but even he stopped to cast a disappointed glare at Falco before shaking his head and following the others. Kaleb stopped to look the bird in the eyes for a moment.

"The fuck are you staring at?" Falco demanded.

The young lion turned his head to one side spitting on the ground, "I don't even see why he thought you were worth it." He said following the crew, "I would'a left your sorry ass to the fuck'n weirdo."

Vixy and Mika were the last two left in the room with the three hostages, "Falco." Vixy said getting the bird's attention.

The bird froze for a moment, he knew the voice but, he'd not heard it in years, "What the fuck?" He asked as he looked to the white vixen.

"That's right, I'm still alive Falco." She said making her way to Katt, who's pregnant belly was keeping her from getting up, "You know, you really disappoint me." She said signaling Mika to help her as not to put too much stress on Katt.

"Okay mommy, up you go." Mika said straining a bit to help the feline to her feet.

"Fox risked everything, even his new team, to come down here and help the three of you." Vixy said, "He may have just saved the life your unborn children, and all you could do was yell at him. I know you're hurt, you may be able to hide it from a lot of people but, you'll never hide it from me. It hurts when family leaves you, but, in the end I feel sorry for you..." At that point Lucy stood rushing out the door after Fox, "You always had it in your head that showing people that you cared about them was weak. When the only thing making you any weaker, is holding it in all the time." Noticing that Jane was still in the building Vixy turned to her, "Jane. Could you please help Mika with Katt?"

"Umm...yeah..." The cheetah replied, "No problem." She grunted as the feline's weight partially fell on her, "Unnn. No offense but, I think these kids are gonna need a diet once they're born."

The comment caused Katt to chuckle lightly, "I think when they're born. I might need a diet myself."

As they walked toward the door to the building Mika chuckled a bit, "By the way I'm Mika, and she's Jane."

"It's nice to meet you both." Katt smiled to each ot them.

Vixy stayed behind with Falco for a short while more.

"You should weigh out what he might have risked coming down here to help you Falco." She said, "Think for just one minute. Has he ever, even once done anything for himself? Even when the two of you were growing up...everything he ever did he's always done for others over himself, just one time he did something for himself, and everyone that he's ever known turned their backs on him. And now he hears the same thing come out of you...one of the only two people he's ever gone far enough to call a brother..."

"I don't blame him for going after her......" Falco said in a low tone, "But...he could have said something! Let me know that he was okay! Instead he left me to wonder whether or not that really was him they stuffed in the fuck'n dirt! I had to watch my only brother's funeral...praying that somehow, somewhere, someone had made a mistake..."

"You could have said so..." Vixy replied, "Anything but what you did. I can understand how you feel, I've lost family too, but...he deserved better than that---and you know it." The white vixen added heading out of the building, "You've always been a bit selfish Falco, it was something I was hoping would leave you as you got older, but..." Unable to finish her sentence the vixen left the church leaving the falcon to himself and his thoughts.

As Fox and the other made their way through the streets, they realized that whoever had been causing the city trouble had apparently left, or were in hiding. It didn't matter to Fox though, the entire world could have crashed in around him at that moment and he never would have noticed it. His only goal at the moment was to get Katt to the nearest hospital as soon as he could. The large group all had their slight injuries; Creed had a nasty gash in his forehead and a sore neck, Mika, as far as the others could tell had a bruised windpipe, Kaleb had a multitude of small cuts all about his body, Krystal was favoring her left leg a bit, Sia was constantly holding her side, and Lastrad's left eye was swollen shut, but, worst of all, Gwen still hadn't woken up. She'd seen many things before, but, none of them had frightened her nearly so badly before, not to the point that she would hyperventilate and loose consciousness. As the large group of animals made it to the hospital however, several nurses that knew the pink feline rushed to her aide, perhaps working here had it's perks. Luckily this was also a safe place for everyone to get work done on themselves. The only one that hadn't been checked out so far was Fox.

"How's your leg?" Fox asked as Krystal made her way out into the lobby where he waited.

"I'd have felt a lot better doing the healing myself..." She replied sitting beside him, "They say it's just some torn muscle...nothing too severe. What about you?"

"I feel fine. Just a few cuts and bruises..." He said looking toward the cold tile floor.

She could only tell that Falco's words were still on his mind as she reached around him and rested her head on his shoulder, "Fox. you know he didn't mean it. He was just hurt."

Though he knew she was right, her words did little to help, "I know...doesn't stop it from hurting though. For the longest time, him and Slip were the only family I had."

"It's alright Fox. You've still got me."

Fox smiled and lay his head against hers reaching his arm over her shoulders to pull her closer to him...

Creed never really liked hospitals himself, too many memories about his arms, luckily however there was one other animal in the room that was being treated as well. Mika's larynx had been bruised, as well as some of the muscle around her neck. Creed's case of a bruised larynx was nowhere near as bad, but, the gash in his forehead needed stitches. The nurse had just left to retrieve the gear that she would need in order to seal off the wound. When Mika sat in a chair at the large fox's bedside.

"You guys do this sort of stuff often?" She asked coughing a bit.

Creed smiled, "We've all taken our fair share of beatings. This was nothing new, well, accept for the part where the other guy wouldn't die, that was new." He said, "So. where the hell did you learn to fight like that?"

Mika chuckled a bit, "Here and there. My uncle was the first one to teach me, after some...unpleasant incidents in high school." She said, "You know how most men are. They think "No" means "Yes" and "get lost creep" means "take me I'm yours". Uncle Jake nearly went to their houses, he was in black ops himself for a while and wasn't the healthiest idea of a fight, but, in the end he thought it would be a lot more demoralizing to have me kick their asses, so...he pulled me out of school for about two months."

Creed couldn't help but to chuckled at the idea, "What happened to the creeps?"

"There were three of them, but, I was eventually expelled for breaking the arm that decided on pulling my tail..." She smiled at the memory, "I never really believed him but. Uncle Jake always told me that learning to defend myself would do wonders for my self-confidence. It did. I stopped taking people's shit, started working out, and took courses in whatever martial arts I could. Then with the black ops I got even more training. Eventually I stopped taking courses and started teaching myself new things that teachers couldn't show me. Lastrad made the gloves for me."

Creed thought for a moment, "Well. You may not have accomplished much, but, thanks." He said, "It's good to know, that you've got friends out there."

Mika sighed, "Yeah. It's always good to have friends, right?"

Before anything further could be said, Fox made his way to the door of Creed's small room, "Creed. Are you fixed up yet?"

"Nah. According to these quacks a small cut on the head isn't...priority." Creed replied making air quotes on the word 'priority', "How's the pink cat doing?"

"They said she's gonna be fine..." Fox replied, "She's a little bruised, a bit shaken up but, other than that she's fine. The kids are doing just fine too."

Mika turned toward their captain, "What about you? Are you gonna be alright?"

"Yeah. I'll be okay. After being in this line of work so long you get used to taking all the blame." Fox replied, "Anyhow, do me a favor and have Krystal patch up that cut. I need you to come with me. There were some suspicious characters near the star port this morning."

After a short while Creed met Krystal in a safe place away from prying eyes while she used very little energy to seal up the cut on his head. Almost immediately afterward Fox and Creed left for the star dock. As Krystal and Mika watched the two rush down the street, Krystal looked over to the white Minx. The Minx's thoughts roamed free through the air making them perfectly clear to Krystal.  
"You like him. Don't you?" The blue vixen asked.

Mika chuckled, "Yeah, I do."

"Why not just tell him?"

Mika thought for a moment, but didn't bother replying, "It's a personal problem."

Fox and Creed were in front of the Star Port in no time, where several animals seemed to be scouting the area. They were not dressed as normal animals, they were dressed strangely, all wearing red jumpsuits and were all carrying weapons, though there weren't a great deal of them...only about 5 or more, still enough to make things go bad, fast. Fortunately, as the two studied the animals Fox noticed a small, familiar symbol on the breast of their jumpsuits.

"Hang on, Creed." Fox said, "I think this may be a false alarm."

As Fox made his way into the hanger several of the animals pointed their weapons at the fox, causing him to raise his paws to show he was unarmed, "Kewian People's Militia? Is there a problem here?" He asked.

One of the felines studied Fox for a moment, "Do you know who these arwings are registered to?" He asked.

"Hopefully Omni. That's who we stole them from." Fox answered.

The animals all looked back and forth from one another unbelievingly, "We have orders from the TAHC (Trinity Accord High Council) to arrest anyone having to do with Omni on sight."

"Good thing we have nothing to do with them then." Fox replied.

The feline thought for a moment as he looked off at Creed who still stood in the background waiting for someone to make a move, "You...are the group that Omni reported stealing the Nemesis? The mercenaries, right?"

"That would be us, yes."

The cat looked as thought he was looking right through the vulpine, "Take off the sunglasses." He said.

Fox sighed as he slowly removed his eye wear causing the small group of animals to gawk at him, "Don't say a word. I'm not "back" I'm just not "dead" either. I just want to get back to my ship."

The cat bowed to Fox respectfully, "I understand." He said turning toward his small group, "C'mon guys. There's nothing to see here. Just some no-name mercenaries." He said leading his boys out of the building.

Fox was amazed at how understanding everyone was, when he'd left Corneria he'd heard such horrible things spread around about himself and Krystal. Apparently everyone seemed to realize that what they'd done was wrong and understood that Fox wanted nothing to do with his old life anymore.

"Just hang tight here Creed." Fox said placing his glasses back on his scarred face, "Watch the arwings just in case. We'll be back after everyone's taken care of."

"No problem." Creed replied walking toward the ships, "A little time alone will let me think some things off..."

Creed, in the mean time, began to check up on every arwing there, making certain they hadn't been tampered with. As he made a small round checking each of the vehicle's systems something caught his attention. A sudden cold chill crawled up his spine making his tail fluff out, and the fur on the back of his neck stand up. He quickly shot around looking toward what he could have sworn was a fox standing near a large stack of crates, wearing an incredibly ominous smile, but no matter how hard Creed tried to look at the animal's face he could make out nothing, just the black form and the fangs that showed thought his malevolent smile. There was as far as he could tell not even any eyes in the fox's head just that insidious smile.

"Hey! Who the hell are you!?" Creed shouted receiving only the same sadistic smile as before, "Hey! Can you fuck'n hear or what!?!"

As Creed stepped forward, the dark figure moved into the shadows, causing Creed to rush over. There was nothing, he moved things around and even looked outside of the star port, but whatever animal was there, was gone. As he walked back into the hanger a white furred Minx made her way toward the ships. As she approached the large vulpine she noticed a disturbed look on his face.

"Something wrong, Creed?" She asked.

Creed simply looked back to the spot where the figure had vanished, "No. Just, seeing things I guess."

Mika got close to Creed's face examining the spot where he'd been hit in the head, "Maybe you just got hit harder than you thought."

Creed scoffed, "Hah. My head's fine, but, still." He added looking back to the spot where the shadowy figure had vanished, "Who the hell was that?" He asked himself.

The others were there in no time, Fox still seemed to be a bit upset as Falco had apparently never apologized for what he'd said, luckily it seemed like Krystal was there to comfort him. Creed simply stood there thought as the others boarded their arwings, which shortly thereafter left the hanger, leaving only Lastrad, helping Gwen who seemed to be having trouble, looking in all directions for something. It was after Lastrad boarded his arwing that Creed looked to Gwen who was looking over at the same place Creed had seen the stranger vanish earlier. He was there again wearing that same sadistic smile causing the white tiger to slowly back away until she bumped into something that startled her. On touch Creed's memories flooded behind her eyes but, the most recent stood out the most as she kept her eyes on the shadowy figure.

"You can see him too." She whispered, "Can't you?"

Creed glanced back at the figure that shifted it's menacing gaze toward him, "What the hell is it?" He asked, "It looks like a shadow---with eyes."

Gwen turned toward Creed, "I can't stand those eyes---please make him go away."

Lastrad watched on as Creed picked up a small wrench from the ground hurling it at the corner of the area, he saw nothing there. What was Creed throwing the wrench at? From Creed and Gwen's point of view however, they watched the metal object tumble through the air, passing through the strange animal's face, which dissipated into the air followed by the figure itself. Creed looked to Gwen to reassure himself of what he'd just seen. The half frightened feline simply looked back at him with an unsure expression.

"What does it want?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know." The large vulpine replied, "I can only be sure of two things. One, me and you both are seeing it, so it is real. And two, anything smiling that much...ain't do'n it cuz he's happy. Either way, it's gone now. Lets get back to the ship."

The entire trip back to the Nemesis, Creed couldn't shake some eerie feeling he had, almost like he was being watched. He was happy enough to find his way onto the Nemesis's docking bay, where he was happy to find Fox watching over all the incoming ships.

"Hey, Fox." Creed called out as he leaped from his arwing, "Think you can get the surveillance video from the hanger when I was guarding the arwings?"

Fox scoffed, "Why not ask Jane? I'm sure she could do it."

Creed grimaced at the idea of asking Jane for a favor, "What's the matter, Creed?" Mika asked from nearby.

"Jane. Isn't the kind first person I would normally ask a favor from." He said heading for the door to the docking bay.

Mika laughed a bit as she followed the large fox into the hall, "Why is that? Something to do with that little crush she'd got on you? Most guys would find it a bit hard to resist her---assets."

Creed rolled his eyes, "Yeah, well. She's been shoving those "assets"..." He said making air quotes with his fingers, "...In my face as long as I've known her."

"How's that?" Mika asked laughing a bit harder than before.

"Well, she's flashed me on several different occasions..." He replied, "Lets see, there was a time me and Krystal were stranded on that shitty little planet she's from, when she felt the urge to start roaming around the apartment without a shirt on, not to mention several---inappropriate hugs she's given me over the years."

"How do you give someone an inappropriate hug?"

"I'll just say she doesn't really know how to keep her paws to herself." Creed replied, "You'd think with all the guys that have been after her before, she'd go for someone a little more---worth her time. With those "assets" she could probably rope in just about any idiot she wants."

Mika laughed, "Yeah probably, but, maybe it's the fact that most men would just see her as a set of tits. Whereas I imagine you never have." She pointed out.

Creed thought for a moment, "I. I never really thought about it like that." He chuckled, "Maybe I should cut the kid a little slack, huh?"

Mika held up a paw, squeezing out a small space between her thumb and index finger, "Just a little." She replied.

Creed found the young cheetah at her laptop sitting at a table in the ship's galley, he was simply happy the only other soul around was Mika. At first the feline seemed to ignore the fact that Creed had even walked through the door, even as he made his way up to her side, that is until he decided that she was purposely ignoring him.

"Jane." He said.

The cat nonchalantly looked up to him, "Yeah, Creed. You need something?"

"I---kinda need a favor." He said in a low voice, "And we both know that you're gonna ask for something in return, so go ahead. Just don't make it as absurd as you did the last time I asked for your help."

Jane laughed lightly to herself, "Creed you make it sound like I'm gonna proposition you for sex or something."

Creed donned a serious expression, "You have." He said in a harsh tone causing Mika to choke down her own laughter as the cheetah's golden yellow fur began to glisten a bright orange from the red underneath.

Jane looked to Mika and shrugged, "You can't blame a girl for trying."

Creed softened his tone a bit, "I can...and I will. Now with that in mind whatta you want?"

Jane smiled a bit, "How 'bout a kiss? That's not too much to ask, right?"

Creed thought back to what Mika had said in the hall, "No. I guess it's not." He shrugged.

Jane's face turned a darker shade that nearly turned a hot red, "Wha..."

Jane's words were cut off before she could say anything as Creed bent down kissing her rather deeply. The cat sort of panicked at first, as she hadn't expected him to agree to it so quickly. Creed made the kiss seem as passionate as he could without going overboard, which caused Jane to reach around his neck before he finally pulled away from her, leaving the poor feline breathless.

Creed chuckled at her blank expression, "We good?"

"Uh-huh.." Jane mumbled mindlessly.

"What I need from you is the entire day's security video from the hanger we were in on the surface."

Jane still wore a blank expression, "Kay..."

Though she still wore the same blank expression, the feline went back to work on her small computer, her face painted a hideously dark shade of red. Creed turned about to see the white Minx still choking back her own laughter. Creed simply chuckled as he walked toward the cooking area.

"Anyone else here hungry?" He asked.

"I thought you couldn't cook." Mika said.

"Not much know-how to a sandwich." Creed replied as his arm held out a loaf of bread.

As Creed prepared only himself a sandwich, seeing as none of the other two had said anything short of insulting his skills at cooking. Jane cocked her head a bit as she examined something on the screen of her computer...it had taken no time at all for the hacker to find the video but something was wrong.

"Creed." She called, "Who is this dark guy with you and Fox in the hanger?"

The large red vulpine stuck his head out of the cooking area while still chewing a bit of his food, "What? There wasn't anyone with me and Fox. He showed up after Fox was gone."

Jane shook her head, "No...he's standing right here next to your arwing."

As Creed got closer to the small computer he could see the dark figure he'd seen, but, it was standing there watching when he was talking to Fox before the captain had left him with the arwings. As he watched the video, Fox finished talking with Creed and headed out of the hanger, the figure oddly, stared at the image of Creed for a moment before turning and following Fox.

"But. I was watching that spot the whole time we were talking there was nobody standing there." Creed said.

Jane jumped the video forward a bit, up to the point where Creed had see the thing himself. It was there on the video, and it was there when he was talking to Gwen but, something was off.

"Jane freeze that image." Creed said, "What the fuck?" He half shouted.

As the three watched the screen the odd black figure slowly turned it's head toward the video camera, despite the fact that the image was still paused. The figure slowly bore the same sadistic smile it had when Creed has first seen it, before the screen snowed over slightly. The image flashed in and out a few times before only the DOS menu was clear with a small blinking white bar. Jane quickly held up her paws, showing that she wasn't touching anything, as something began to type itself onto the screen a single letter at a time, before speeding up to erratically repeating the words "NO ESCAPE" over and over. As the three looked on in a mixture of amazement and horror, the two girls shrieked and leaped at Creed, as a familiar looking crimson crude began to ooze form between the keys on the small computer. The large vulpine instantly whipped the small machine from the table into the nearby wall where it fragmented into a mess of uncountable pieces leaving a smear of the red solution running down the wall. Creed could only wrap his arms around the two that were holding onto him, looking to each of them in disbelief before looking back to the mangled computer laying against the wall in a heap of twisted components and blood...

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**PS: Creepy...no?**


	60. Chapter LIX

**Author Notes: Woohoo...One more chapter till I reach 60 and soon enough I'll be able to put out Chains of Fate 2 which still has no subtitle. This chapter goes into more detail about that ghost thing, but, at the same time certain things have to be left in the dark. Srry. Anyhow, hope you enjoy the chapter, to be honest, after that little scare I can only hopw that my stuff hasn't been nurfed or something...meh. If so I'll just tone it down a bit on the explicit content...Don't forget to R&R...C'ya ^_^

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**-Chapter LIX-**

The events that Creed, Jane, and Mika had all seen were still fresh in their heads, what they'd seen was not something any of them would soon forget. It was something that the others needed to hear, but, most likely wouldn't believe. Before long Creed found himself standing on the bridge looking out into space, trying to sort out what he'd witnessed. What exactly was that thing they'd seen? And how could he explain the rest of the events, how could it clearly look at them from a recording? Or make a computer seep blood? He felt as though he was loosing his entire grip on reality, the whole scenario was tearing his mind apart, he'd never really questioned his own sanity but, now he had probable cause to do so. That creature, or whatever it was, it's eyes and insane smile were something that the vulpine swore would haunt him forever. Jane had so far refused to touch another computer, and Mika, well, he wasn't sure, he hadn't seen her since after they'd seen it. As he stood there Fox entered the room going over some documents...

"Hey, Creed." Fox called getting no reply, "Creed? Creeeeeeeeeed....hello. Ground command to Creed, are you fuck'n in there?"

Creed could hear him perfectly well but his mind was elsewhere most of the time, "What?" He asked, finally coming to his senses.

"You alright?" Fox asked, "Look like you've seen a ghost."

Creed simply looked out the window, "Or something of the like." He half whispered.

"What?" Fox asked not catching all of it.

"Nothing. Listen, have you ever questioned your own sanity?"

Fox chuckled at the comment, "I think we all do at some point in our lives. I've seen some freaky fuck'n shit in my life believe me."

"What about ghosts?"

Fox looked to Creed who was still staring out into space, "What? Like...spirits? I've never seen anything like that, but, I'm still young. Krystal says she's seen them before but, only on Cerinia back when she was only a kit."

"Gwen and I. We saw something down on Kew...something, not normal." He said.

Now Fox was interested, "What do you mean "not normal"?"

Fox wasn't sure what to think about what Creed began to tell him, nothing about the strange apparition made any sense at all to him...

Creed still only looked out into space, "I've never been afraid of anything in my entire life, Fox. Not even when I thought I was gonna die during the war...but, that thing, whatever it was. I-it was like I had no choice." He said looking over his shoulder, "It was like looking at that thing...it...it made me want to do things. Hurt people...everyone around me. I had to destroy that laptop before it made me......" At that point Creed looked at his paws which were shaking violently.

"Creed..." Fox said laying his paw on the vulpine's shoulders.

"It was...trying to make me kill them Fox." He said in a frightened voice, "Made it feel, like killing Jane and Mika would make everything right again, and fix everything in my life. That's why I destroyed that computer while I still had control."

"Creed, whatever it is, you beat it, right?" Fox asked.

"I---I don't know." Creed replied, "I almost lost control of myself...felt like, I wasn't even me anymore."

Fox thought for a moment, "Have you seen it again since then?"

Creed simply shook his head...

"Good...could you have Jane get me a copy of that video?"

Creed shook his head again, "She won't touch a computer...she's been in her room all day...I couldn't even find Mika."

"Training room...with Gwen." Fox said, causing Creed to head for the door, "Hey. Try to forget about it...we need you when we reach Styx."

Creed simply nodded slowly as he headed out the door, Fox had never seen the large vulpine in such a state of mind, could something have really scared him that badly? It was hard to believe but, Fox was the first to admit that there were simply things in the universe that he and no other had any means of understanding.. He knew that Creed wasn't lying, and the animal had never shown any signs of any kind of mental fatigue. He decided that the only way of finding out what was going on, would be by seeing the security footage for himself. As he stood by he could hear the door hiss open allowing the sent of a freshly showered blue vixen to enter the room, that nearly caused him to loose his train of thought.. He managed to think clearly again however after she had already kissed his cheek before leaning against his shoulder.

"MIA..." Fox started, "If you've still got a feed on it, get me a copy of that footage Jane and the others were watching in the kitchen earlier."

There was a moment of silence before MIA confirmed the video had been transferred to the com systems holo-projector. Fox, as always, took his seat, whereas Krystal simply stood by his side. Soon enough the video popped up, Fox could find nothing wrong with it, where Creed had claimed to have first saw the mystery animal, there was nothing. Until the video was to the point where Gwen and Creed were talking, Krystal noticed something suspicions...

"Who is that they're looking at?" She asked trying to make out the small shadowy figure.

Fox barely noticed it but, could make out the rough shape, "Hmmm...I don't know. Is that the weirdo the others were talking about?"

"Well..." Krystal said, "I don't see any bleeding machinery, and....." She instantly froze up as Fox looked away for a moment.

As soon as the vulpine's head was turned the figure in the video looked to Krystal with a menacing glare, unlike the smile that Creed and the others had explained earlier. She instantly slapped her paw to the side of her head, as a burning pain drove her to her knees.

"FOX! MAKE IT STOP!" She screamed attempting to hold her skull together, fearing that if for one moment she was to stop the pain would simply get worse.

Fox instantly turned toward the screen to see the strange black figure staring at Krystal from the screen with a horrible glare in it's soulless eyes...

"MIA shut that thing off now!!" Fox yelled rushing to Krystal's side.

Unfortunately as the images on the screen faded into nothingness, Krystal still lay there holding cradling her pounding skull as she slipped off into unconsciousness. There was almost nothing he could do to help her other than stay at her side, and hope she would recover quickly. It wasn't long before he had called for Jane who made a rush to help. After getting her to the medical bay, Fox found himself surrounded by others, Roxy, Silver, Vixy, and Lastrad had all come to see if Krystal was alright...

"What the hell happened?" Jane asked.

Fox hardly believed it himself, "I---I don't know. I wanted to check out that weirdo Creed and you girls were talking about. We saw it, but, then she collapsed. Like something was overloading her telepathy, or something."

"You guys saw it too?" Jane asked, "Then...what we saw...it was real?"

Fox looked to the cheetah, "Yeah. I'm afraid so, but if that's the case what the fuck is it?" He asked, "Some kind of spirit? If so why would it start this now?"

Lastrad looked to Fox for a moment with a light growl to his voice, "I don't like this one bit. It's got that fuck Arlex's name written all over it." He said, "Think about it. This didn't start until we ran into him on Kew, might have even been what freaked Gwen out in that old church."

Fox thought for a moment, "Yeah...maybe." He said, "Lastrad. You, Roxy, and Silver. Go get Gwen...I need to talk to her. From now on I don't want anyone going anywhere on this ship without someone with them. Got that? I don't know what that thing was, but if it can do this to Krystal..." He said brushing the vixen's hair from her face, "It might already be on this ship."

**-000-**

Creed had only just made his way to one of the Nemesis's training facilities, where he was happy to find Gwen and Mika chatting about something, which stopped as he entered the room. As Mika pummeled the heavy bag in front of her a little, Creed looked about the room, a bit surprised that he'd not been there yet. It was possibly because of the abundance of activity his daily life had received recently. Whatever the cause, he hardly cared. He examined the large room as he made his way to a long row of exercise bikes where he took a seat. He questioned why they faced the large viewing windows in front of him that stared out into space but, he hardly showed any care. Even though he didn't realize it himself his eyes were not fixed on the view of space before him, rather his they were fixated on the white furred pair lightly chatting about as Mika rapped her fists a few more times smartly into the punching bag. The large vulpine was not really there for much of any other reason than to think, which would explain why the machine beneath him was no more than a seat as he sat hunched over with his arms folded over the handle bars supporting his head. His focus shifted back over to the two as he could hear Mika shout "Dammit!" He found his eyes helplessly glued to the pale Minx's well shaped backside. She hadn't been kidding him before, she was much more tone and athletic than her everyday appearance let on. Fortunately by the time she stood up and looked over to Creed the vulpine's full attention was back on the darkness beyond the window in front of him. Mika thought to herself as he sat there, she felt as though she should apologize for her first assumption of him, claiming that abundance of brawn meant lack of brain. He seemed to always be lost in some sort of thought or other, much more than any man she'd met before. To be truthful she was a bit attracted to the large fox, if not only on a physical level, she found him to be very interesting altogether. As she stood there wondering to herself what was going through his mind at that moment she felt Gwen give her a shove, causing her to look back at the feline accusingly...

"What the hell are you waiting for?" Gwen asked in a hushed voice, "Go talk to him."

"Gwen...I..." Mika started only to be stared down by the tiger.

"Hide it all you want..." The white feline said folding her arms about her chest, "but, we both know that one way or another you're gonna try something...most likely sooner than later."

"Gwen just back off." Mika protested.

"You're still stuck on that dickhead aren't you?" Gwen asked.

Mika laughed a bit rubbing the cat's head, "No, Gwen. I forgot about David a long time ago...but, thanks for reminding me."

Gwen donned an embarrassed smile, "Oh. Sorry, Mika."

"Forget it kid." The Minx replied, "It's actually got more to do with something my uncle told me when he was teaching me to fight."

"What was that?"

Mika smiled at the young feline, "Maybe I'll tell you later."

It was about that time that Lastrad showed up, he was saying something but, Creed was not paying attention for the most part. Until he heard the lupine's voice call him...

"...eed, you hear that?"

Creed shook his head from his thoughts, "Hmm? What?"

"We're heading to the bridge. Fox doesn't want anyone staying alone on the ship for now, so I'm leaving Mika here."

"Sure. Whatever."

It was as the small group left that Mika looked to Creed herself, "Hey. Creed?"

"Yeah." The fox answered staring out into space.

"I think you, me, and Jane can agree that we saw blood come out of that computer, right?" She asked.

"Yes, I saw that computer bleed. Why?"

Mika thought back to what they'd seen, "Because I went back into the kitchen. There was no blood, just a broken computer. You felt it too thought didn't you? Like everyone in the world was against you?"

Creed thought back to that feeling, "Yeah, I felt it too."

**-000-**

The blue vixen shook her head, rousing from what she believed to be some sort of sleep, only to be welcomed by an unbelievable sight. Krystal quickly covered her mouth with her paws as tears began to trail down her face, she had not been here in what seemed like forever, the green trees, little huts built around the trees. She was home, even the animals running around the village all seemed familiar. As she watched on a familiar looking black fox moved by. She instantly snapped to her defenses as Arlex moved paster her, but even more so she was surprised to see him smile as he made his way into the forest, Krystal of course followed behind him until he brought himself to a stop...

She could hear his voice as though she was there, "Krystal! You're going to be late!"

"I'm not going!" The blue vixen's voice echoed from the trees overhead, "It's not right! I don't even like him!"

Arlex looked to the ground shaking his head, "Very well! I will inform you father that I could not find you!"

"Thank you Arlex!"

"It is my pleasure, Little Blue!"

She remembered how kind and caring the dark furred vulpine once was, she had a hard time believing that the one she'd encountered now was the same animal. How could anyone that was so kind, become the kind of monster that she'd witnessed? She recalled this day well. She wanted nothing to do with it's memory, it was the one day that she'd never forget. She knew what was coming now, Voss would eventually rush into these woods where she stood, warning her that something horrible was happening. This was however her opportunity to find out what was going on when Cerinia was destroyed. With that in mind she rushed out into her old village searching frantically for Arlex, as the villagers seemed to rush about completely oblivious to her presence. As she looked about the place she noticed the black furred figure walking out of the village. As he did so she followed behind him, knowing that there was no way the vision of the dark furred fox could see her. Soon enough the vixen found herself standing before a large stone door. She had been warned when she was younger to stay away from the place, it was supposedly a dangerous place, her father had always held the key, but, as she looked on Arlex produced something from his pocket. A small bloody object that she knew as the key that her father would have protected to his dying breath.. Arlex held up the stone which flashed with an unreal light before the giant slab of stone began to rumble, sliding out of their way. Arlex simply walked inside followed by the older blue vixen who was reliving the entire scene.. She followed behind him, the massive corridors that were not even lined with any type of light. As she looked on the room spread out into a massive chamber, as dark and empty as an unmanned grave. There was a chill about the place that seemed to chill her down to her very soul, it was warm just a moment ago but, here inside this massive room it grew so cold, so rapidly that she found herself violently shaking while cradling herself for warmth, her slightly labored breaths became visible as small puffs of white. There was something about the room, and it's atmosphere that she did not like in the slightest. She could feel something horrible, as if tens upon thousands of eyes in the darkness were watching her from all angles...it was a feeling that she absolutely could not stand.

"I don't like this place..." She told herself.

It was then that she noticed a small dais in the middle of the massive room, a large, round, stone, table-like structure that seemed to emit a feint light, a small blue dark crystal shard sat above hovering several feet above the dais, bobbing in the air as if gravity was not certain which direction it should fall should whatever force holding it in place let go. Arlex seemed to stare at the black shard with awe, while he approached the dais. Krystal was well aware that there was no real way for him to hear her should she call out to him, but, that didn't stop her from trying. As she stood by, Arlex made his way closer to the dais where he seemed to

hesitate for a moment before getting much closer. The black fox ran his fingers across the surface of the stone table. Suddenly his paw shot upward, as some unseen force hauled him into the air until he was several feet off the ground, seeming to dangle by his wrist. Krystal looked on in horror as the shadows seemed to gather into the space before Arlex, forming a familiar black image that she'd seen on the security video she'd watched with Fox.. The soulless apparition bore a sadistic smile before reaching above and plucking the small black crystal from the air, before mercilessly driving it into the fox's chest, allowing the body to fall to the floor, before turning it's terrible smile toward Krystal before fading back into the shadows where it had come from.

Krystal shot upright tossing the blankets aside, her heavy breathing roused the chestnut furred vulpine that slept next to her in a small chair, causing him to jump to his fee...

"You alright?" He asked, noticing her rapid breathing and the cold sweat rolling off of her fur.

Krystal looked to him with tear streaked eyes which caused him to wrap his arms around her, "It was Arlex." She said as she wiped her eyes on Fox's shoulder, "That thing we saw...It...it has something to do with Arlex. Something he found on Cerinia."

"What thing?" Fox asked, "You mean the shadow?"

Krystal pulled away from Fox for a moment who stood up and carried over a suit of fresh clothes, "It's no shadow. Whatever it is. It did something to Arlex." She said pulling off her sweat soaked shirt, and wringing the water out of it before tossing it aside slowly followed by a sopping wet bra.

Fox turned the corner and quickly turned his head as he saw the topless vixen who giggled at him a bit as he approached her, "Fox. What the hell are you doing? You've seen them before, and had you way with them a few times. You can stop being modest."

Fox tossed her a light red shirt, "It's not modesty..." He explained, "I...I just can't look at you when you're like that, without...well, you know...getting, um, excited..."

Krystal slid her shirt on with a smile, "Well...you can turn around now. I'm dressed." She said casing Fox to turn about, finding a place to sit beside her.

"You were saying?" Fox asked.

"Oh...right." She'd nearly forgotten what they were talking about, "That thing...shadow thing. When I saw it in that video...it, looked at me, or more like, into me. My telepathy was completely overwhelmed by the strongest emotions I've ever felt; anger, hatred, rage, nothing positive at all...so much hatred, toward everything. Whatever it is, I've never thought pure evil could really exist, but..."

"Hmm...you think it could be here on the Nemesis?" Fox asked.

Krystal shook her head, "I'm, not really sure, but...I think it's bound to Arlex somehow. It could be what's keeping him alive but, I can't be sure until we can find out what that thing is."

"Well we have bigger things to worry about right now." Fox replied, "The sword is a little more important than...whatever that thing is. As long as you're okay, I could care less about it."

Krystal smiled kissing Fox on the corner of his muzzle, "Where is everyone?" She asked.

"Most of them are in their rooms." Fox replied, "It's just past 1am. I ordered everyone to pair up for the night...I wasn't sure whether or not that thing was on board the ship."

"Good thinking." The blue vixen replied.

"Unfortunately it doesn't seem like we're going anywhere for a while." Fox said, "There's apparently been some sort of a prison break in Stygian...some sort of big deal. They aren't sure how he pulled it off but, someone managed to make his way off of Styx." He said, "We're apparently ordered to stay put until a search team can examine the ship. I think they may be a bit suspicious of why Omni's flag ship is here anyhow."

Krystal thought for a moment, "Umm...Fox, I don't know if Creed's bothered to tell you but..."

"Yeah, I know. He's wanted out here." Fox replied, "I've seen the reports...you've got quite a rep out here yourself."

Krystal shrugged her shoulders, "What can I say? This place attracts assholes. All the scum that tries to run from Corneria, either ends up here, Krazoa, or Dan'jas. So me and Creed have a rep in more than just one system other than Lylat."

"Well...on either note. I'm just glad you finally woke up." Fox said kissing the blue vixen, "Lets go get some food...after such a long nap you must be hungry."

"Starving." She half shouted realizing her own hunger.

**-000-**

Creed sat in the docking bay, going over several thing about his arwing that didn't seem quite right on the way to Kew's surface. Mika had gone along, deciding to fix up a small ship of her own. Creed didn't mind the extra company at all really, he'd actually gotten used to having others around all the time, though he also found a bit of interest in watching her work on her arwing...he couldn't explain why but, he really did like watching her work. As she turned wiping a bit of sweat from her forehead Creed caught the sight of a streak of oil that smeared across her forehead...

"What?" She scoffed as she noticed the odd look on his face.

Creed chuckled a bit more, "Nice makeup."

Looking a bit confused, the white Minx turned about looking at her reflection in the polished hull of her arwing, "Wow. Nice shade." She laughed wiping it away with a nearby rag, "I haven't worn makeup since high school."

"I don't see the point in it." Creed said from underneath his own arwing a small distance away.

"What are you talking about?" The Minx replied.

"To be perfectly honest..." Creed replied as she could see him reach out for a wrench before pulling it back under the ship, "I think...you're pretty enough already. You can have too much of a good thing you know?"

The Minx stopped her work for a moment, she really had a hard time believing in what she'd just heard, "What did you just say?"

"What?" Creed chuckled, "You for some reason think that I can't tell a girl when I think they're attractive?"

"No." Mika replied, "It's, just that most guys don't really come off with it that easily."

"Yeah. Well, I never really did have that problem. I call things the way I see 'em...always have, always will."

Mika slowly leaned against her arwing, "If that's really how you feel...what do you intend to do about it?" She smiled.

Creed pulled the dolly he lay on out into the open, as he lay on his back he tilted he head to see the upside down Minx, and laughed a little, "You'd be a lot better off elsewhere Venus." He said pulling himself back under the vehicle, "I'm not exactly what you'd call "worth it"..."

Mika smirked a bit, "Well...if that were the case wouldn't I have some say on whether or not you were worth it?"

"Hmmm..." Creed hummed in thought, sliding back slightly into view, "I guess you would."

Mika smiled, "You know what?" She said, "You and I...we've never really sparred have we?"

"No, we haven't. Why?" Creed asked.

"Well. My uncle once said that you can never really know a person until you've fought them." She said taking a bit of a stance, "How about it? I've got nothing better to do."

Creed found his way to his feet before stretching his neck, "Now that I think about it. We really aren't going anywhere until that search is done are we?" He said taking his own fighting stance...


	61. Chapter LX

**-Chapter LX-**

Mika rolled to her left, barely managing to dodge the massive fist that struck the metal floor of the docking bay. Creed's strength was nothing less than intimidating, as the missed attack laid a large dent into the grating she'd been standing on. The white Minx looked on in shock, at the sight, she'd feared that the attack had send a tremor through the entire ship. Apparently Creed was serious about fighting. She took a moment to regain her balance. For a moment she wasn't quite sure what she'd gotten herself into, she had no idea he could move so fast for someone so big...

"Just 'cuz I'm big..." The large fox asked, jerking his fist from the metal floor, "...doesn't mean I'm slow."

Mika looked at him accusingly, "You could have put a little less punch into that."

"I thought sparring was to show strength...not restraint." Creed smiled, rolling his shoulders.

Mika smiled herself, "My Uncle always said. _Restraint is a major part of strength. Knowing when to, and not to use your strength. Is far more important than the strength itself_."

"Hah!" Creed scoffed, "You don't actually believe in that bullshit, do you?"

Mika laughed for a moment, "Not even for a second!" She shouted rushing in at him.

Her onslaught was a bit rougher than Creed had expected, but that was what he was going for. She managed to throw a kick at the large vulpine but, it was easily blocked with one of his unusually thick arms, she bounded back after the impact, rubbing her shin. The block itself felt as though it had cracked her shinbone. The white Minx gritted her teeth as she looked to Creed, who simply held up his arm...

"Hardened Turillium Alloy...you ain't kick'n through it." He scoffed, "Might wanna try a slightly different method. I've had people break bones hitting these things."

"Fine then..." The Minx growled to herself, becoming a bit agitated.

The Minx for a minor second seemed to become a complete blur, dashing toward the large fox in a zig-zagging pattern before throwing another kick at his face. Creed quickly threw up his guard. The kick that landed however, was much too gentle to actually be considered an attack, and before he could realize it, his pale furred opponent's other leg swung about, catching him in the ribs with a power that forced a small bit of blood to trail down his lip. It was a kick that was thrown with serious force. She'd gotten serious at some point. At first she was surprised that the attack had landed, unfortunately as she found herself unable to recover. Creed's powerful grip already had her by the ankles, dangling her in the air, where she found herself staring at the large fox's knees. The Minx gave Creed no time to act on his position though, as she swung her weight away from the vulpine, arching her back as she came back toward his head, driving her elbow down, which was blocked by Creed's other hand. He quickly retaliated swinging the white furred animal around and releasing her through the air. She met the ground once before tossing herself back onto her feet, shaking her head as a stinging cut on her forehead leaked blood into her eye. Before he could say a word the Minx dove forward into a head first roll, before driving her feet toward Creed's knee, unfortunately, his leg was out of harm's way before the blow could connect. Mika barely managed to roll away before Creed's foot smashed a sizable dent into the floor. Mika suddenly spun from her back up to her shoulders, extending her legs upward in a bizarre move that caught Creed in the side of the face, forcing his eye shut. He stumbled back a bit from the kick, but, managed to throw a devastating punch. The nimble Minx managed to leap onto his massive forearm driving a vicious kick toward the vulpine's skull, unfortunately, Creed's recent head trauma did nothing to screw with his coordination skills, as his paw latched onto her ankle again, this time pulling her into a powerful grip, as the vulpine's massive arms wrapped about her waist. Though very little force was applied, Mika could have sworn she heard her back crack...

"Give...up...yet?" Creed asked.

The Minx writhed, kicked, and punched at him, but at the range they were at there was nothing she could do to break the monster's grip...

"I don't....give up..." Mika half yelled.

Creed was surprised at how much energy she had left, he smiled giving her another light squeeze, "You are one stubborn bitch...you know that?" He smiled.

Mika managed a short smile herself, "Yeah? Well......"

Before she could say anything else, the Minx lurched out pulling Creed into a rather unexpected kiss that left his eyes wide. It only lasted a few moments until he realized what was happening causing him to quickly pull away. He had no idea what to say, he was only able to stand there, dumbfounded at what had just happened. He managed to set her down after a moment, he still stood there for a moment before he shook his head...

"What the hell was that all about?" He asked.

The Minx shrugged her shoulders, "Well......"

Suddenly a voice shot out over the bridge, "Creed!" Fox's voice called, "Get to the kitchen! The search team is gonna be here any moment!" He said, "Try to lay low until they leave..."

**-000-**

Creed and Mika found themselves in the kitchen each holding an ice pack over one eye. They hadn't spoken a word since they were in the docking bay, as far as Creed was concerned it was simply far too awkward. As they sat there, Shera walked into the room with Vixy. They both ignored the two before finishing a small bit of business in the cooking area and returning to a seat...

"What the hell happened to you two?" The gray she wolf asked.

Creed looked at Mika then they looked to Shera, "We lost gravitational control in the docking bay for a few minutes...there were wrenches and shit fly'n everywhere." He said not wanting to tell the truth.

Vixy smiled, "There was no report on any gravity loss on the ship."

"Concealed incident." The red furred vulpine retorted.

Vixy and Shera picked up their food and headed for the door, "Right..." They seemed to tell each other.

For a moment Creed looked at the bizarre expression that Mika wore in light of his words, before he began to chuckle a bit. Mika couldn't help but to join him, as they both burst into fits of laughter...

"Th-that...was....the stupidest..." Mike spouted between breaths, "Thing I've ever heard."

As they sat there Mika stood up and headed into the cooking area, she'd been pretty hungry for a while now, "You're not hungry are you?" She asked.

"A little..." Creed responded.

"So.." She asked from out of Creed's sight, "What is it you're wanted for out here?"

Creed sighed a bit, "Not really much too it. Krystal and I were do'n a job out here in Stygian, hunt'n down some sicko, child rapist freak that had decided to pay Kew city a visit. He made off with about 5 kids. We were paid to come out here and find him, and hopefully bring the kids back without much of a problem...but, turns out they don't really appreciate bounty hunters out here...in fact apparently they're killed or thrown in prison on sight. We managed to find him, unfortunately, we only found 3 of the kids he'd taken...I never took more pride in killing anyone in my entire life. There was a downside though..."

The smell of fresh steak filled the air, "What was the downside?" Mika asked.

"Well...it turned out our little pedophile had a more important side to him..." The large fox scoffed, "...he was a senator. Basically, he used a peace conference being held on Papetoon as an open source to do some shopping. Krystal and I were treated as hostile invaders, luckily there was no proof that we had any sort of connections with Lylat since, back then our base of operations was actually on our ship, and the government denied any affiliation with us at all." He said, "We understood why though. Lylat had just gotten out of a war, they couldn't afford another one. So we took the heat, and ran..."

"Well...at least you both did the right thing." The Minx said walking back to the table sliding the fox a plate and s small bottled drink, "Looked like you could use a drink."

**(Nemesis Docking Bay)**

Fox and Krystal stood by as they watched a small craft board the Nemesis. As it landed several animals made their way out into the open. Two felines, a fox, and a large Luxonian. The Luxonian was clearly the leader of the group as he immediately began to approach the two vulpine. Krystal had feared that the massive pachyderm would recognize her but, as she peered into his mind, but, all she found inside his head was the desire to find the convict in question. Perhaps they really were only there to find an escapee from Styx, but there were methods that one could teach themselves to block out a psychic, though she doubted that this animal knew any of those secrets.

As the large, grey skinned animal approached Fox it extended a massive paw, "I suppose you would be the captain?" He inquired.

Fox had not seen the animal's kind in a long while. The Luxonnians were often looked down on as they were once a race that thrived on war,. They had always been the largest animals Fox had ever laid his eyes on, even the smallest one spanning more than nearly 7 feet tall. Their trunks were much shorter than those of their ancestors, this one in particular had a trunk that only reached to his chest. Regardless however Fox shook the large animal's paw...

"Yes. Call me Scar."

The mammoth creature bore a large smile, "Scar? I can see the significance..." He said noticing the scar of Fox's face, "...I am called Yarr. I deeply apologize for the inconvenience, but the animal in question is not to be trifled with."

"Well if you wouldn't mind getting this done quickly..." Fox replied, "We have incredibly important business."

"Might I ask just how important this business is?" Yarr asked.

"Very little time to spare, important."

Krystal thought for a moment, "Can't you simply do a bio-scan of the ship?"

The pachyderm sighed, "Yes. Unfortunately, we do not possess the proper equipment for that particular procedure, so we are forced to use far more...exhausting measures."

"Well...I hope you find him sometime, even though I know you'll never find him on this ship."

Yarr sighed, "Yes I'm sure we won't but, he is dangerous and crafty, so we must search every ship regardless."

"I understand, If you need me I will be in the ship's galley. I'm afraid I can only admit you limited access to the ship's computer, but, she can give you directions to just about any place on the ship. And if you need anything she can direct any type of call directly to me."

Yarr nodded his large head, "That will not be a problem, Sir. Thank you for your cooperation."

It was as Krystal and Fox left the room that Fox looked to the blue vixen, "Well?"

Krystal sighed with relief, "He seemed to be telling the truth. All we can do now is sit, and wait."

Fox draped his arm over the vixen's shoulders pulling her a bit closer to him, "I can think of a lot more interesting thins to do that just sitting around all day." He smiled as his paw slipped down her back until he began to tickle the base of her tail.

She quickly bumped his arm away with a giggle from his actions, "Hey!" She half shouted pointing to him, "None of that."

Fox looked about the area innocently, "What?" He smiled, "I didn't say anything."

"Yeah, right." The vixen chuckled, kissing his cheek, "You're not that sly."

Fox chuckled, kissing her cheek in reply, "What can I say? You're too beautiful for your own good."

The hours seemed more like days within themselves, seeming to take more and more time without sign of the ship being allowed to go anywhere thanks to the intrusive animals on board scanning for someone that most definitely was not there. They'd have known if someone had come aboard the Nemesis at any time, if MIA's scans didn't pick up life that shouldn't have been on the ship, Fox would have been informed, and even if he had found a way past the scans, Krystal's telepathy would have eventually have picked up his thoughts anyhow. Of course Yarr's little team was not aware of this fact. For the longest time, Krystal and Fox, found themselves in the kitchen with Creed and Mika, Fox was also happy to see that Silver had come out to see everyone. The silver fox still had a bit of healing to do but, luckily he looked to be feeling much better, oddly enough the silver furred vulpine was alone when he entered the kitchen, he was quickly passed a small platter of food...

"Well, you look better..." Fox said, "Where's Roxy?"

"She...hasn't been sleeping very well lately." Silver replied looking at the food he'd been given, "And for some reason she won't tell me why."

a moment of silence filled the room, "Maybe she's stressed out from all the stuff that's been going on." Mika said, "We've all been through a lot after all."

"Which brings a question to mind..." Fox replied looking to Creed and Mika, who both would undoubtedly have a black eye each later, "What the fuck happened to you two?"

Creed smiled across the table, "Don't bother." He said causing Mika to roll her eyes at him.

The small group sat there eating for a short while before Lastrad entered the room, with Gwen and Kaleb right behind him, "So this is where everyone got off to." He said finding himself a seat.

Krystal had been suffering a terrible headache, ever since her dream about Arlex and the strange shadowy figure. She didn't know why but, something told her that she should know something about it all, but unfortunately she could not recall ever having heard of anything even remotely close to it. She did have a cure for such headaches however. As the blue vixen stood up she moved toward the door...

"I've got a headache..." She announced, "If anyone needs me I'll be in my room."

Krystal thought for a moment before, she finally shook her head, all the stress was beginning to give her a headache. Without a word she headed off to her own room to take a shower, anything to make her head calm down and stop hurting. She was happy to find that her room was just as quiet as always, the way she liked it in these situations. She made her way to her closet, pulling out a light red tee shirt, and blue jeans. Shedding her own clothing on her way into her bathroom. The blue vixen made her way right for the shower sliding the door open looking toward the floor, a slight chill wormed it's way down her spine before she looked into the shower. The sight of the shadowy figure standing before her caused her to scream out loud, as she turned and ran, when she finally got to the door of the bedroom however she slapped her palm on the scanner causing her to run into Fox's chest who quickly wrapped his arms around her.

"Hey!" He shouted trying to get her attention, "What's going on? Why are you screaming and running into the halls naked?"

"I saw that thing again! It's in my shower!" She shouted burying her face in Fox's chest.

The chestnut furred vulpine emitted a low growl as he pushed Krystal aside and made his way into the bathroom, "There's......nothing in here Krys." He said.

Krystal quickly rushed over to find that the only thing in the room other than Fox himself, was her fresh clothing sitting on the counter.

"Fox I know what I saw." She said looking to Fox desperately, as a tear trailed down her face.

Fox quickly turned back toward the now shaking vixen taking her back into his arms, "It's okay, Krystal. I know you're telling the truth." He said stroking her hair and rubbing his muzzle against the side of her head.

"Ever since I saw it that first time..." She said drying her eyes on Fox's shirt, "I can feel it watching me, wherever I go, whatever I do."

Fox pushed the vixen away a bit, "Is there anything I can do to make you feel any better?"

"Just stay here..." She answered, "I don't wanna be alone right now."

Fox wiped a tear away from her face, "Alright then finish your shower. I'll be right here."

It wasn't long before the blue vixen had put the experience behind her, thought having Fox willing to sit nearby throughout the rest of the day. Luckily nothing further happened with Yarr's crew, who found nothing in their search of the ship. Krystal had given up on trying to sleep in her own room that night, she kept fearing that for some reason she was going to open her eyes to see that smile again, Fox of course had no objections allowing her to sleep with him, he always slept better when she was with him...but, for some reason there was no comfort in her presence for him when she was there because she was afraid of being alone, all he wanted to do was keep her safe and happy, but, how could he combat something that wasn't there? He couldn't bring himself to go to sleep, he could only watch the blue vixen, who's head lay against his chest, her grip around him was actually tighter than usual as if she thought for some reason he wouldn't be there when she woke up. All he could do himself was lay there, and hope that on some level, his presence was comfortable enough to soothe her mind.

Creed found that, like most nights, he was only able to find sleep in a minimal 2 hour shift, waking shortly after falling asleep. He had no idea how long they'd been traveling but, he was well aware that the ship was no longer moving, then again it was not much of a trip between the boarder and Styx. The vulpine made his way toward the bridge where he found himself in the captain's seat looking out at the floating red orb off in the far distance...

"MIA...where are we right now?" He asked the ship's computer.

"Currently in orbit around, Jeigen. Second moon of planet Styx of the Stygian system. Deemed the most likely of the planet's three moons to support life."

"What kind of atmosphere dose this moon have?"

The bridge was silent for a moment while MIA checked the ship's data banks, "Nitrogen rich atmosphere containing trace elements of sulfur, argon, and oxygen...oxygen level at 30 percent, 11 percent differential from that of Corneria reading at 21 percent oxygen.. Land masses are composed of deep canyons and flat plains,"

"Scan the surface for any unusual formations; buildings, landmarks, anything out of the ordinary."

"Complete scan will take approximately 25 minutes." MIA informed him.

"Good. Go ahead." Creed replied.

After a short while of sitting there looking out toward the small planet in the distance. There had been so many times he was threatened with a life on that planet. He secretly wondered just how many were down there because of him and Krystal, he knew that it was no small number, though most of their targets were brought in dead rather than alive. He knew that there was no small number of animals down on Styx that would love to get their paws on him or Krystal. Several of his memories of the animals he'd put away made him smile a bit, they had more than deserved what they'd gotten, several of them, at least in Creed's opinion, had gotten off easy. It was as he sat there thinking that he turned his attention to the door which let out a hiss as it slid open. He was a bit surprised to see Jane standing there...

"Hey..." Creed greeted her, "What're you doing up at this hour?"

The cheetah looked at her feet, "Really bad dream."

"What made you come in here then?" The large fox asked.

"MIA told me you were in here." The cat smiled, "I guess after seeing that weird shit with my laptop..."

"Yeah...I know what you mean." Creed said, "Krystal saw it again last night, but, it could have just been her nerves. Who knows what's going on in that head of hers right now. Must be hell, feeling all the emotion in one room all at once. Fox said something happened when she saw it for the first time on the bridge. There's something about that thing that doesn't agree with her telepathy at all, ever since then, she's been on ends about everything."

Jane sighed as she approached the crimson furred fox, "It seems like the closer we get to the blade, the worse things get. I just hope that after we get this last piece things go back to normal...but, I doubt they will."

As the young cheetah stopped next to him Creed looked out the window, "I see this whole thing coming to a head pretty soon...and I'd bet anything that it isn't going to be pretty when it does. Whatever that shadow thing is...it has something to do with the blade. Even worse yet, I think it may have some sort of a connection to Krystal somehow, it's effected her on a much higher level than any of us."

The young feline rested her paw on Creed's shoulder as MIA's voice rang through the room, "Scan completed. Small archaeological anomaly located on surface, chances of natural formation 0.52 percent. Location at 30.153 degrees south latitude by 123.326 degrees west longitude. No present life detected."

"Good save those coordinates. We'll head down there in the morning." Creed said standing up and stretching his back, "I think I should try to get some more sleep before morning. I think you should do the same, Jane." He said walking toward the door.

"Wait..." Jane said pulling on his arm, "I know...it's asking a lot...but, can I...sleep with you tonight?"

"What?" He replied lifting an eyebrow.

"I just...feel safer...with you around. I promise not to try anything stupid."

Creed sighed, "As long as you promise not to do anything stupid, I don't see the harm in it. I think just about everyone's a little freaked out about that thing really." He said, "Either way, we need our sleep."

* * *

**(Planet Aetheria, Dan'jas System)**

The Drogan have lived on the planet of Aetheria for as long as the planet has been known and longer, in a small village somewhere on the small planet a lone animal sits, peering through closed eyes at the universe around him. The thin, red scaled lizard, keeps his eyes closed as another animal enters the room...

"Good day, Frahl." The red Drogan said.

"Good day, Brother Drake. What news do the stars bring to you?"

The red scaled animal's golden eyes fluttered open, "The blade is nearly complete, but, the darkness is growing stronger...I fear that "HE" will be released soon...and there is nothing any of us can do to stop it."

The other animal paused, "Then all is lost."

"No...the blade is where it needs to be." Drake replied, "That alone is reason for hope. Gather the tribal elders, the blade, and it's caretakers will be drawn here shortly. I simply hope that by then...that it is not too late."

* * *

**Author Notes: Srry if this chapter was a little slow, it was really just to open up the last part of the storyline. Luckily I've already got my basis on part 2 put together I simply want to go over it a few times before I start to write it, anyhow. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, thanks for the support, R&R, and I'll see you all next time...**

_The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox_


	62. Chapter LXI

**-Chapter XLI-**

Krystal yawned as she finally woke up, she was happy that no nightmares had disturbed her sleep, as she opened her eyes she found Fox propped up in a sitting position against his bed's headboard, with an arm around her shoulders. As she lay there, she wondered just how long he'd stayed awake, making sure he'd be there in case the shadow creature showed up again. She smiled a bit, as she realized that Fox had a rather tight, protective grip on her. The vixen pressed her muzzle under his chin, rousing him from his sleep. He didn't realize at first that Krystal was awake, as he simply, looked blindly about the room before closing his eyes again. He had gotten very little sleep through the night, as she watched this happened Krystal's smile brightened even more. She couldn't bring herself to wake him up. Instead she simply nuzzled herself back into his chest fur, allowing his heartbeat to slowly lull her back to sleep.

**(Roughly 30 minutes later)**

Creed woke feeling oddly refreshed, he was not used to sleeping in, but, it was a feeling he could get used to. He nearly leaped out of his bed when he found Jane laying there with him, until he remembered what he'd said last night. It really wasn't all that bad however, she really, oddly enough, hadn't tried anything funny. Of course there was always more time for that. His expression soured a bit as he felt something soft brush up against his back, it was soft and firm at the same time, but, it was a feeling he knew enough about, to instantly tell that there were a pair of breasts pressed firmly against his back. Creed instantly rolled to his left, unfortunately misjudging the space left with his large frame on the bed. The sound of his large body colliding with the floor was enough to wake the sleeping feline, along with the feeling of the blanket being quickly pulled from on top of her...

"Creed? What the hell are you doing?" She asked groggily as she managed to sit up.

Creed sat up looking at her accusingly, "What am I doing?" He half shouted, "Why are you half naked?"

Jane giggled lightly, "I always sleep in my underwear creed you know that."

"Then explain the half naked part." He demanded.

"I never wear a bra to bed. Have you got any idea how uncomfortable those god forsaken things are?" She asked, "You're lucky I wear one at all." She shivered a bit, "Look if you're going to stay down there at least give back the blanket."

Creed tossed the bedspread to Jane as he stood up, "I was ready to get up anyway...you still could've given me a fair warning though."

Jane rolled herself in the blanket before looking over her shoulder at the large fox, "Look, I'm sorry...it just sorta slipped my mind. It' s not something I normally think about, I just do it."

"Forget about it..." Creed said rubbing a sore bit of his leg, "Just go back to sleep. We'll wake you up when we're ready to go, if you aren't already up."

The young cheetah closed her eyes, "You don't have to tell me twice." she mumbled as she went back to sleep.

**(another 30 minutes later)**

Fox roused from his sleep finally, to find that he back hurt like hell, sleeping in an upright position wasn't the best of ideas, but, the pain in his back melted away as he looked to the vixen sleeping against his chest. He sat forward making certain not to wake her up, before stretching his elbows back behind him, pushing them toward one another until a rather shrill series of cracks caused him to sigh in relief. He could feel a light chuckle jerk at the blue vixen's body...

"Wow...that was pretty loud." She said snuggling a bit more against the fox's chest.

"Yeah it was..." Fox replied matter-of-factly, "I probably shouldn't have slept like that."

The azure eyed vixen reached up kissing the still half asleep vulpine, "Well I think it's about time we got up, we should go to the surface as soon as possible so we can get out of Stygian." She said stretching her back as she crawled out of bed, "I'm gonna go take a shower."

As she walked away Fox noticed that there was an extra sway in her step, causing her tail to swish back and forth teasingly. After being in the bathroom for about a minute Fox could hear the shower turn on. And as he lay there the door slid open again, allowing Krystal to peak around the corner making certain her bare right breast peeked around the corner as well...

"Could save a lot of time with both of us in here." She smiled seductively.

Fox slowly crawled out of bed making his way over to the door where he took the vixen in his arms, "Who wants to save time?" He asked engaging the vixen in a passionate kiss, while kicking his boxers off into the room before allowing the door to slide shut.

**(about 2 hours later in the ship's kitchen...)**

The entire team had been in the kitchen for practically ever, eating, chatting, and all the time waiting for Fox and Krystal. So far the latest animal's to show up were Jane, Silver, and Roxy. Lastrad, Gwen, and Kaleb all sat at a small table near the large window of the kitchen that now looked out onto the moon they'd soon search for the last piece of the blade. While the other were scattered about the room, mostly in small groups of two or three, spare the light gray furred she wolf that simply sat alone, staring out at the black space beyond the ship's window. Creed made his way to a small table where three familiar animals already were seated, Mika, Vixy, and Jane...

"I wonder what's taking Krystal and Fox so long." Creed said.

Jane chuckled, "Each other is my bet."

Creed took a look at a watch that he wore on his wrist, "Yeah, well. They sure as hell are take'n their time with it."

Vixy sighed, "Well, that's young love. I think most of us have been down that road at least once." The white vixen said, "Just give 'em a little more time."

"I think it's kind of romantic really." Mika said sipping from a small mug of coffee in front of her, "The whole universe could be in trouble...but, the only thing that matters to them right now is each other. I wish I knew what that was like..."

"You will Mika." Vixy chuckled, "I never thought I would, but...the love of my life literally fell out of the sky."

"Is that how you met Fox's father?" Jane asked.

The pale furred vixen smiled at the memory as she ran her finger about the rim of her own coffee cup, "Yes. He was in some sort of dogfight outside of Cerinia's atmosphere when his G-diffuser was pretty badly damaged. When I found him he was pretty badly damaged himself, James had managed to crawl away from his ship, searching for help possibly. I used to love exploring the forests. One day on one of my normal outings I found this incredibly handsome fox laying against a tree. He was dressed pretty oddly, but I suppose you'd all find casual Cerinian attire rather odd as well, but, for the most part he'd managed to dress his own wounds. Cerinian men are never very well off in physical nature, they are most often thin bodied and kind of frail. As opposed to the rest of Lylat, on Cerinia the female was most often the provider." She shook her head as she realized she'd strayed off, "Anyhow, I'd never seen a male like Fox or his father before...in terms of the musculature that is. James always did tell me that if he had to live without a gym of some sort he'd go mad, but, the main thing that attracted me to him was the first time I saw his eyes. They were intense and focused, but at the same time, very beautiful...I'd never seen eyes like James's before, they seemed to pull in everything around them."

"So what? Love at first sight?" Mika asked with a smile.

Vixy laughed, "Something like that I guess. I was certainly smitten with him when I first saw him, that was for certain. I suppose that was what possessed me to carry him home and tend to his injuries...It took him some time to recover..."

"So that healing thing that Krystal does isn't all that common?" Creed asked.

"No. In fact that is a very rare trait in Cerinians. I was amazed when I had first heard that she was a healer, they were a very special and important part of life on Cerinia, in fact a Cerinian that has done it long enough, can actually learn to go as far as to heal diseases." Once again Vixy realized that the subject had carried off, "Once again. Like I said, it took him some time to recover, but, while he did so laying there in my hut, he began to tell me of all these wonderful things that were out there. Places that I'd never even dreamed could possibly exist...he even spoke of an entire world of water. We began to get closer the more time he spent with me, and at some point our...(hem)...relationship got out..."

Jane giggled girlishly, "You two got caught together."

Vixy chuckled to herself, "Yes, we were caught in the throes of passion. An idea that didn't sit to well with the chief or the other villagers...in fact they sent out a small party to kill both James, and myself. Claiming that my actions were a form of shame, or heresy, or something, I never really stayed long to find out what they were talking about. I ran with James and he took me away from that place...and for the first time, in a very long time......I was happy." She finished.

"I guess our waiting can't be that bad." Creed said, "I'm gonna go make some last minute adjustments to my arwing before we leave. If they make it in here before then let me know."

As he made his way out of the kitchen Mika stood up, "I think I'll do the same thing, I've still got a lot to learn about that machine."

Jane took the moment to watch Creed leave the room, "Vixy...did you ever think that maybe, Mister McCloud wasn't the right one?"

The white vixen thought for a moment, "Why would I ever think that, dear?" She asked noticing the young feline's look, "Is this about Creed?"

"Sort of..." Jane replied.

Vixy looked to the cat who tried to hide her face, "Jane. No sort ofs, and no maybes. Either yes, or no."

"Okay yes, it is." Jane replied toying with the cup in front of her, "Ever since I've known him, I've really liked Creed, but he's never really paid any kind of attention to me."

"Well you can't force someone's hand in these sort of things..." Vixy said, "Besides, everyone can tell that he really cares about you."

Jane sighed, "Yeah, I know he does. It's just that...well...him and Mika got alone from the first time they met..."

The white vixen laughed, "Well...I'm afraid that that just happens sometimes Jane."

The young cheetah rubbed her crossed arms, "Not to me it doesn't." She said looking at the table, "Any guy that's ever shown any interest in me only really wanted one thing...and I can assure you it wasn't my charming personality."

Vixy laughed lightly at the feline's sentiment, "Well...I apologize but, there are a lot of sick individuals out there that will only view you as an object." She said, "I take it that was what attracted you to Creed."

Jane only nodded, "He...never looked at me like other guys did...for a while I thought that was the only type of look I'd get from anyone. There've even been a few girls that acted the same way...and that was just creepy. Flattering, but creepy."

"Well, Creed never has given me the impression that he would be that sort of person..." Vixy replied, "He doesn't feel like that kind of person at all."

Jane smiled, "You're right, Creed would never be that kind of an ass. He can be a bit of a creep sometimes but, I think that may just be his dry sense of humor."

Vixy laughed out loud, "True. His sense of humor is a bit on the dry side...but, his heart has always been in the right place."

"Yeah. I just wish that I was a bigger part of his life than I am..." The cheetah said, "Maybe if I were stronger...."

The white vixen sighed, "No fun every came of waiting for something to come to you. If what you've tried so far doesn't work try something new, meet him on grounds that he's already familiar with, because, it seems the little sexual advances don't exactly have the same effect on him that it would on most other animals." As she said this Fox and Krystal entered the kitchen together, "But, for now I think you should get ready if you're going with us."

Jane thought about the vixen's words, "No...I don't think I will. I have a lot of stuff to do, even more to think about."

"Just try not to think about it too much. Actions are a lot more productive than thoughts and words."

After a short while Fox had brought out something for himself, and his blue furred companion to eat, a time in which Jane and Kaleb had both managed to leave the kitchen. Nobody really said anything as the two sat there, at the same table where Vixy still sat drinking another cup of coffee, even she had nothing to say however. She was simply happy to be around for this part of her son's life. Even as a child she never could recall him having ever been any happier. As she sat there watching the two eat their breakfast that a particularly curious though crossed her mind...

"So?" She asked resting her head on her paw while smiling at them waiting for Fox to take a sip of his coffee, "When do you think I can expect any grandchildren?"

Fox quickly spit out his coffee, some of which Vixy was forced to brush off of her fur, leaving Fox breathing heavily with some of the dark colored beverage dripping from his opened moth. Roxy, Krystal, and Gwen could all be heard laughing. Krystal had already developed tears from her pained sides...

"What?" The pale fox asked, "Too soon?"

Fox thought for a moment before looking out the window to see the moon where they'd find the last piece of the blade, "Um...I...Wait there's no time for this we should be getting to that last piece of the blade as soon as possible." He said standing up and heading out the door.

Krystal laughed a bit before shaking her head, he couldn't even take that kind of talk as a joke, and followed the fox out of the room. The blue vixen found Fox in the hallway trying to alleviate the embarrassment his mother had caused him, he was a little comforted by the light blue vixen, as she placed her paw on his shoulder. She knew he was only trying to find his way out of an awkward situation, but as they headed down the halls toward the docking bay she couldn't help herself...

"Sooo..." She said, as they walked paw in paw down the halls.

"Sooo, what?" Fox replied.

Krystal leaned her head against his shoulder, "It's not a bad thought...is it?"

Fox looked to the cerulean vixen only to see a beautifully serious smile, "What? You mean kids?" He asked, "No...it's not a "bad" thought, this just isn't what I'd call ideal time for such a thing. I mean if you're that serious about it..."

Krystal pulled her head away from Fox's shoulder, "What do you mean?"

Fox stopped in the hall for a moment, "Krystal..." He said facing her while resting his paws on her shoulders, "I want to give you everything. Anything you could possibly ask for, I'll find some way to give it to you. I just don't think..." He was cut as a blue furred finger pressed to his lips.

"I understand Fox." She said kissing him, "I just wanted to know how you really felt. You looked a little distressed back there."

The two continued their walk, "Well...to be honest, I'm just not comfortable talking to my mom about my sex life. Even if I haven't seen her in over 20 years."

"You don't have a problem talking to be about it." Krystal pointed out.

Fox chuckled, "Krystal you are my sex life. Why would I have a problem talking to you about it?"

Krystal laughed herself, "Good answer."

"Now what do you say we go get the last part of this fuck'n sword and find out what to do with it?"

The two finally made it into the docking bay where they found only Creed, they didn't bother asking about why Mika wasn't there anymore. They simply went over the specs to their own arwings, to make certain they were ready before their flight. The two helped each other go over their individual fighters to help make the process go by much quicker than one animal checking over the mass of systems and drives the small fighters were composed of...and moreover these ones were more complex in the inner workings than the standard ones Fox was used to, it was helpful having someone else there to point out whether or not he was forgetting something. As he continued to work with Krystal on their Arwings, the others began to show up most often in small numbers...twos and threes. Fox was happy to see that everyone was getting along so well, but as he looked over the room he approached the huge red furred fox still making some adjustments to his fighter...

"Yo, Creed. What happened to Mika? I thought she was here with you." Fox asked.

Creed finished twisting what he believed was a loose bolt, loose or note the thing wasn't going anywhere now, "Actually, she was working on her Arwing over there. Then Jane came in here. They talked for a minute and left." He said tossing his small wrench into a nearby toolbox.

"Hmmm..." Fox thought for a moment, "MIA...locate Jane and Mika."

After a moment, the computer replied, "Both crew members located in training facility 1-b."

"Patch me through on the P.A." Fox waited a moment for the connection, "Hey you two we're leaving..." He warned them.

There was a slight silence, "Sorry Fox. I think I'll sit this one out." Mika's voice replied.

"Me too." Jane's voice added.

"I'm staying here too." Kaleb said as he approached Fox from behind, "Somebody's gotta watch this ship, right?"

"Alright. I guess your group is big enough already. Should be just fine with the nine of us."

It wasn't too long before Shera approached Fox herself, "I'm sorry Fox. I'm not going anywhere...I feel like shit." She said.

Her fur was terribly mattered all over the place, her eyes seemed to barely be able to stay open, and she seemed to be having a serious headache...

"Wow...you look horrible." Fox said.

"Thank you very much for that startling revelation." The she wolf said with absolutely no enthusiasm, "I'm going back to bed. Let me know when you guys get back, I need to talk to Krystal about something."

"Okay. When we get back I'll send her to your room. Just, try to get better before then, okay?"

Shera didn't even bother to reply as she made her way out of the docking bay. After a short check of their equipment and such, Fox was the first to board his arwing. The others followed in suit, Gwen flying with Lastrad as she was not a pilot, or trained for any type of flying. After everyone was done with their system checks, Fox's arwing roared to life before pulling out of the docking bay followed by the others one after another. As they all headed out toward the small sickly orange colored moon, Fox looked back toward the Nemesis, he had a hard time imagining something on such a monumental scale sitting next to the Great Fox, compared to the Nemesis the Great Fox was the size of an arwing. A small warning sound pulled his attention back to the control console before he realized that it was simply another part of the new arwing's systems. At the touch of a button the newer G-diffuser system could be switched to automatically adjust to best fit the pilot's situation. It unnerved Fox however, he didn't trust an Omni built computer, to adjust a system that could decide his life or death in an instant. He adjusted the system just as his arwing broke into the small moon's atmosphere. As the team leveled out below the moon's atmosphere, Fox looked to his left, where a light blue vixen looked over giving him a slight wink before speeding off ahead. His sight flashed about the surface of the planet though, it was a rather sickly sight. Hardly what the vulpine would consider inhabitable, it's surface rough and jagged, full of crags and fissures, large canyons of sharp jagged rocks, littered with a light red sandy surface. There was a small while of looking about the surface when he noticed that they were coming close to the point Creed had pointed out and there was no sort of ruins anywhere. The chestnut furred fox activated his ships communication system...

"Hey, Creed. Where the hell is this place?" Fox asked.

"According to MIA's scans it should be right ahead of us about another 40 or 50 meters ahead." Creed replied, "Hang on...take a look inside that canyon down in that valley up ahead."

As Fox did so, he noticed something unnatural about it. It's edges were too clean, and it did not possess the natural shape of any other canyon that he'd ever seen. Fox quickly opened a line with all the others, "Alright. Creed and I think the target may be down inside the canyon just off to the left. Everyone slow your decent we'll have to go in one at a time. I'll go first."

As Fox descended toward the large hole in the planet's surface, there was little in the means of room, but, more than enough for only a single arwing to glide in, missing the walls of the smooth surfaced fissure with the tips of his wings, with only a few feet to spare on either side. As he finally touched down, Fox opened his communications back up with the others...

"Close your wings on your way in and readjust your stabilizers...It's a pretty tight fit." He said.

"Rodger..." Krystal replied, "I'm coming in. See ya soon."

With that Fox pulled the hatch to his cockpit allowing the air lock to be broken, and a powerful rush of foul smelling, and tasting air to rush in on him. He wondered what the horrible stench was but, it was carried on the dry wind so, it may have been from miles away. As the vulpine looked about the canyon he noticed that the walls of it were far too smooth as he had earlier deduced, They were rubbed smooth like polished stone, possibly to keep any from scaling th cliff side. The bottom of the canyon was so dark that Fox was forced to recover a large glow stick from his ship's cargo bay along with what parts of the blade they already had. The light green illuminating tube of luminescent material in Fox's paw gave him a short glimpse of the area around him. Other than his arwing there really wasn't that much, some rocks and gravel on the ground at his feet, and an incoming arwing overhead but, no real sign of where to go from here. As Krystal's fighter touched down Fox could feel the gravel and small rocks that seemed to leap away from the small ship's landing zone some striking at his pant legs tearing at the green fabric before he decided to take cover behind his own arwing. As soon as Krystal's feet were on solid ground Fox handed her another of the light giving devices. The green highlight on her blue fur, turning it a slightly light blue-green, even seeming to change the red shirt she wore to a sickly orange color. However Krystal found that this light only increased the features of the handsome fox in front of her. The green light made his emerald eyes sparkle an even deeper green than before, and added a green hue to his fur that matched them accordingly, though it did little for the black shirt he wore, or his light brown cargo pants.

"What?" He asked noticing a slight smile on the vixen's face.

"Nothing..." She said light voice, "This light just makes you look...I dunno...pretty."

"Gee...thanks." Fox replied, not really liking the idea of being referred to as "pretty".

Krystal's light laughter was cut off as her ears perked up against something, "What's wrong?" Fox asked.

"I......I could have sworn." The vixen said walking toward the walls, "I felt...a...a mind just now. Somewhere down here, it was fuzzy but, it was there." She said holding her light up to the black rocky wall.

"You mean someone else is down here?" Fox asked laying a paw on her shoulder.

"Yes. I, just wish I could get a grip on that person. Whoever it is seems to be blocking me out somehow."

Not much later the small canyon was nestled with more fighters, and the small search party all stood with glow sticks lighting the area, these sticks were much easier on the eyes than their LCD lamps, and would not force their eyes out of focus from the darkness should they loose their light. The path however lead down the canyon several meters, before the team ran into another pair of arwings. Fox quickly rushed over placing his paw on the rear of one of the machines...

"Engine's cold...they've been her for several hours at least." He said.

To Fox's surprise Gwen made her way slowly toward the vehicles, and reached a shaking paw out to one of the arwings hulls. As soon as she touched the ship she gasped for breath, her ability had always taken a lot out of her. Several images flashed through her mind of a blue male fox that she'd seen before...until, a small view of Arlex appeared to her. He was only there for an instant before "it" showed itself again. This was a vision, but regardless the shadowy image turned it's head slowly toward her with an irate look on it's nearly non-existent face. It's lips curled into another cruel smirk before it approached the white feline. Outside of her mind the others could see the cat's breathing becoming more and more erratic by the second, as green lit tears began to roll down her face until Lament finally took the animal by the waist pulling her away from the vehicle. Gwen was shaken a bit but, for the most part she had not spent too long inside the vision to sap her energy...

"They're here....all three of them..." She said trying to catch her breath.

Fox looked quizzically at the others, "Three?" He asked, causing the others to shrug their shoulders in reply.

"Syler, that Arlex guy, and....that shadow thing from the hanger on Kew." Gwen replied as Lament helped her collect her footing.

Everyone instantly pulled their weapons making certain that they were ready for anything, before the two headed off in the direction Gwen had pointed out that Syler and Arlex were headed in. It wasn't long before they came to a place that was familiar to Fox. A large opening where he'd expected to find a door of some kind, but, there was only a narrow opening here. As he looked on Krystal shivered a bit, her telepathy did not like this place in the least. It felt as though her telepathy itself was tugging her back toward her ship, begging her not to enter this place, but, she had to stay at Fox's side regardless of how she felt. She simply took Fox's hand, hoping that knowing he was still there would bring some comfort to the horrible feeling that was welling up inside of her.

As the hall narrowed out, there stood two figures near the expected pillar of light in the middle of the massive dome-shaped room, where the last piece of the blade could be seen hovering inside the large ray of light. The black vulpine that stood next to Syler seemed to wear no expression at all, simply standing there with his arms crossed about his chest, his long curved sword beside him, it's tip plowed into the rough stone floor displaying the sadistic sharpness the blade held...

"I believe, you are holding something that belongs to me McCloud." Syler said extending his paw.

Fox readied the weapon, "Come and take it. You remember how well that went over last time."

Before anyone could make a reply a silver furred fox stepped in front of Fox, "No..." He said, "If he's going to die. I'm the one that kills him."

"You sure?" Fox asked.

Silver looked to Fox, "He ruined my life...It's my turn to ruin his."

Fox had never seen the young vulpine more serious, "Alright. I'll leave you be..." Fox said looking toward Arlex, who simply gave the fox a cocky sneer, "But, this son of a bitch has some questions to answer." He said making his way over to the black fox with the still incomplete blade in his paws.

"Are you ready for me McCloud?" Arlex asked resting a paw on his weapon. However as soon as the fox's paw moved he found the point of Fox's weapon at his throat. Something wasn't right here, why would he...

"You can't touch it can you?" Fox asked tapping the blade to the fox's face resulting in a blue arch of electricity.

Arlex let out a frustrated sigh, "Well...I suppose the proverbial cat is out of the bag." He said crossing his arms again, "Now is there a reason for all of this? I am after all only here because of this, moron's little crusade."

"What the hell are you?" Fox demanded.

Arlex laughed, "I am simply...myself, can you honestly say the same. I sincerely doubt as much."

"You know what I'm talking about." Fox growled, "What Creed did to you back on Kew. Nobody lives through something like that, and even if they did, they damn sure don't stand up and keep fighting."

"Well..." Arlex replied, "In my defense none of us are really...normal now are we? However, I think the term vessel, would be a suitable term..." The black fox smiled pulling back the side of his jacket to show the black crystal planted into his chest.

"Vessel for what?"

The black fox pulled his sword from the ground sliding it back onto his back, "God himself." In what seemed like less than an instant the vulpine vanished.

In the mean time Creed had to stop Roxy from rushing out to Silver's side as he stood there looking only at Syler, "Silver..." She shouted, only to find that Creed had pulled her back.

_I don't like the sound of that..._ Fox thought to himself.

**-000-**

"Stop." The large fox demanded, "You have any respect for him at all...let him do this. Everyone's gotta meet their maker someday. This is Silver's fight, we've got nothing to do with it, and we have no right to interfere. It's on equal ground so leave it be."

Roxy pulled at her arm again, finding that the gentle, yet powerful paw holding her was far too much for her, "He's gonna get himself hurt again."

"Probably...but, he'll heal." Creed pointed out, "This isn't a fight the kid can afford to loose, and I don't think he has any intentions on loosing. You should have faith in him...he's a lot better at this than you're giving him credit for."

Fox quickly joined the group, "So what did you learn from that freak?" Krystal asked.

"Nothing helpful...just more creepy bullshit." He said handing her the blade, "Go get the last part of the blade, then take the others and get it back to the Nemesis. Then get us set to head straight for Sauria, I wanna get the fuck out of this system as soon as I can."

"Are you sure about this?" The blue vixen asked.

Fox kissed the vixen softly, "Yes. Creed and I'll stay here until this is over, and bring Silver back..." Fox took a look at Roxy, her stance imposing that there wasn't a force in the universe capable of moving her from her spot, "I guess she's gonna stay too."

Krystal looked to Fox for a moment, "Don't do anything stupid Fox. If something goes wrong get the hell out of here as fast as you can."

"Hey don't worry about it..." Fox replied, "There's no way this fucker's beating Silver, not on equal ground. Hell I don't think he'd be able to on uneven grounds either."

As Krystal rushed off to collect the last portion of the blade Syler moved to interrupt her but, he simply found himself staring face to face with Silver again, the vulpine wasn't going to let him go anywhere. Syler had far too many crimes to answer for...

"Is this really something you want to do...son?" Syler asked mockingly.

Silver glared at the blue fox, "Don't you dare call me that." He growled.

"Is it not the proper term?" Syler asked, "My blood runs through your veins after all."

The taunting only increased the rage the young fox felt, "Blood or mud, I already have a father..." Silver replied glancing over to Fox for a brief moment, "He's the only person that's been there for me. I may not know much, but I know what a father is...and you don't even come close."

"I see you're ready to settle this...make me pay." Syler said readying himself, "I know your power boy, I made you. I can take you apart." Syler said.

As the blue fox said this his eyes took on a red hue, his body slightly bulged with a sudden surge of what seemed like muscle and in what seemed like an instant the two were at each other's throats...

* * *

**-Undisclosed Location-**

A single animal sits by, Syler's assistants all at work at several different computer terminals...

"Report status..." He said in a rough voice.

"Project Zeta activation confirmed..." A female squirrel said from her post, "Feral stage 1, 50 percent power and rising."

A young female vixen also looked over her shoulder, "Sir, Silver Fox, project Number 13 activated...55 percent and rising."

"Well then..." The tall animal replied scratching his chin, "Lets see how well, Zeta can stand up to his own creation. This should be interesting, if not mildly entertaining." The animal said looking to a screen that was observing the fight when this animal notice Fox, "Ah. McCloud,so nice to see that 13 has made some friends, too bad." The animal laughed.

Suddenly the vixen at her computer spun about in her seat, "Doctor, both subjects have equaled out at 60 percent efficiency."

* * *

**Author Notes: Yay. Chapter 61 down and out. Hopefully there aren't too many mistakes here. By the way, some people may not like the ending of this fic, there is a part 2 in the works now titled "Shattered Hopes" but, well...I'll just leave the rest up to your mind. Anyhow, remember to R&R, and like always...Thanks for the support, and most of all thanks for reading. See ya all next time...with chapter 62 in step...**

_The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox_


	63. Chapter LXII

**Author Notes: **To be honest I'm just happy to get up chapter 62 in this week. Unfortunately the writer's block has hit pretty hard, but, also this may give me some time to work on other projects. Also I haven't slept at all tonight so, I managed to get more than half of chapter 63 done already as well. Anyhow, thanks for the support...hope you enjoy the chapter and like always. C'ya next update...

_The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox

* * *

_

**-Chapter LXII-**

Fox and Creed could only look on watching the spectacle from afar, Roxy was having a hard time believing what she was seeing. She'd never seen Silver in his current state, he moved like lighting and each strike, whether it hit or missed seemed to drive with all the force of a small explosion, she could hardly believe that this was the same animal she knew so well. His kind demeanor was shed away, and all that remained was a snarling feral animal, hellbent on destroying his target. Fox and Creed don't seem to see any difference in Silver, they've seen him like this before, and were just as shocked as Roxy the first time they'd seen it themselves. It was as Roxy stood there, that she realized just what Silver was talking about a while back, when he'd called himself a monster. She now knew why he would think such a thing, but, she still didn't see him in that light.

Silver and Syler clashed, the impact from the two sending each of them in an opposite direction. Their fists collided with one another, resulting in a sound reminiscent of a gunshot, the sheer force of the blow causing Roxy to cover her ears. There was a short moment in which the two decided to stand by sizing each other up, before suddenly, Silver shot toward Syler in a blaze of speed. The strikes the animal threw were nearly unseen, until a spin kick thrown at Syler's head which was ducked. The psychotic Cerinian instantly took Silver by the tail whipping the poor creature toward the nearest wall with incredible strength, however, he had drastically misjudged the silver vulpine's resolve as Silver shifted his weight landing in a crouched position against the wall before springing back toward Syler, moving at an unbreakable speed catching the blue fox off guard, as Silver's paw caught the animal by the chest driving his back into the ground with a sickening impact, unfortunately even the thundering crash of the animal's spine into the solid stone floor was enough, as Syler's feet shot Silver at least ten feet in the air. Upon the animal's decent however, Syler leaped into the air driving his knees into Silver's back and riding him back to the ground, the impact forcing blood from Silver's mouth as there was most definitely internal damage. There was an instant in which Roxy thought that Silver may have been killed, until the silver vulpine's legs hooked under Syler's arms quickly and forcibly slamming the back of his neck into the floor. The two continued their onslaught upon one another, with one destructive impact after another, Silver moved like Fox and Creed had never seen before. An unnatural mixture of power and speed blended perfectly into each attack the young vulpine threw. The rage that the silver furred fox felt seemed to pour from him like a tapped well...the three onlookers could almost feel the hatred the poor animal felt for the blue furred creature he fought.

A powerful throw slammed Syler into the wall of the cavernous room, leaving an imprint of the animal in the stone surface, forcing him to his knees around a small mound of large chunks from the room's wall. He quickly hurled one in Silver's direction which disintegrated to dust as it collided with the young vulpine's fist. As if thinking the exact same thing the two rushed off in opposite directions around the round room, trying to build up all the speed possible before they collided on the far end of the room. Thought the impact was unseen, Fox and the others could see a small silver shape fly back into the wall before falling to his knees, and finally sprawling out on the floor. Roxy covered her mouth as she watched the poor animal fall to the floor, fearing the worst had happened before, the young fox leaped to his feet slamming Syler's back against the nearest wall to him. The flurry of punches seemed to drive into the animal's body and face like jackhammers, causing large fissures and cracks to begin stretching outward along the surface of the once smooth stone wall. A bloodthirsty roar sounded from the young vulpine as his assault continued, Creed had given up counting the sheer volume of attack that were thrown, there was no surviving such an onslaught, not when the punches echoed like gunshots. However to their amazement, as Silver's assault stopped Syler fell to his feet, staggering but still standing. Silver simply stood there with blood dripping from his sore knuckles, he wasn't sure whether it belong to Syler or himself but, he hardly cared. Holding the Cerinian up by his neck Silver cocked back his arm, which began shaking violently as Syler smiled at him...

"Go ahead...do it..." His father managed to mumble through his shattered jaw.

As the shaking continued tears began to roll down the silver furred vulpine's face, as the rage seemed to suddenly wash from his eyes...even in that state, driven by absolute rage and hatred...he couldn't do it. As he stood there, trying his hardest to kill the animal something made his eyes widen, as he felt a soft, warm presence wrap itself around him...

"Silver...you don't have to do this. Lets just go...he can't hurt you anymore." Roxy said resting her head on his shoulder.

Silver turned his attention from Roxy back to Syler, who's breathing was less than perfect at the moment, "Stay away from me...and my family." He warned Syler dropping him to the floor, "Just leave us alone."

Roxy helped the poor animal walk, as now, not driven by the undetermined level of adrenalin in his system, Silver realized that his right leg refused to hold up his weight. It was as they made their way toward the others that Creed patted the beaten animal on the back. Fox simply sighed at the blue vulpine that, at the moment, fought in a vein attempt to get to his feet. It was as the group of four made their way out of the large room that they could hear Syler's voice echoing through the area, in a deranged laugh...

"You'll never know what you're searching for McCloud!" He shouted, "Not until it consumes you completely! This thing will take you down, and everyone dear to you will suffer---"

Syler's voice was cut off as a familiar black form seemed to step from the shadows standing before him for a moment. He had thought that Arlex had abandoned him, but, now the dark furred vulpine was standing there as though he'd never left. However, as the battered Cerinian looked on the black vulpine pulled a long curved weapon from his back, and stood there, still studying the blue fox for a moment as he attempted to stand...

"You're weak, Syler." He mumbled, "But, not useless. Had that been McCloud you'd have never survived."

Syler still struggled to get to his feet, "And...how...would you know that?"

Arlex knelt down with a terrible look of evil painted across his lips, "Because, he's already killed me once." He said handing the sword to Syler who used it as a crutch to get to his feet, "Listen well Syler. I have had enough of your power games...from now on you work for 'him' and 'him' alone. Understood?"

"Him who?" Syler replied.

Arlex smiled as he brought his face close to the blue vulpine's, "God..."

* * *

**-The Nemesis 30minutes later-**

**-Medical bay-**

Krystal made her way out of the medical bay and nodded with a smile to the waiting pink furred lapin, who quickly rushed into the room to check on Silver. The half exhausted blue vixen leaned up against the cold metal wall exhaling deeply. They finally had the Blade of Ages, she knew now that it was not a myth, but still. What to do with it now? She couldn't simply lock it away and hope nobody every came to fight them for it, there was no way they could protect it forever, and according to everything she knew and was told there was no known means of which to destroy it. There was really only one race of people that would know such a thing, and up until recently she had believed them to be completely extinct. It was as she stood there thinking to herself, that a warm and familiar paw rested on her shoulder, before she found herself looking into her favorite fox's jade green eyes...

"You okay?" Fox asked.

Krystal kissed him on the end of the nose, "I'll be fine after a little while."

"How's the kid?"

Krystal turned and looked to Silver, who was simply talking with Roxy who sat on a small chair next to his bed, "He'll be fine. Just a broken bone, and a few torn muscles...he's had worse."

"But that's not what's on your mind right now is it?" Fox asked causing Krystal to lower her head.

"You said...." She paused, "You said that the Drogan...they're still alive right?"

Fox nodded, "Yeah. Corneria tried to get them to join the Trinity Accord but, for some reason they refused the offer. They're still on good terms with Corneria but, for some reason they requested to be placed under E.S.A (Evolutionary Stability Act) restriction. I'm certain their home world is still Aetheria in Dan'jas."

Krystal thought for a moment again about the blade, "Fox...don't ask why,but...."

Fox wrapped his arms caringly around the vixen, "Don't bother...I'll set a course for Aetheria..." He said rubbing her stomach, "MIA. Set course. Dan'jas system, planet Aetheria." He called out making certain to turn his head away from Krystal's ear.

"Hyperspace confirmation time set at 3 hours 22 minutes..." MIA's voice replied from the PA system.

"Good just get us moving until we have our confirmation." Fox said resting his head on Krystal's shoulder, "You hungry?"

The blue vixen placed her paws on his leaning her back against his chest, she shook her head lightly, "No...just tired."

Fox turned the vixen about lifting her into his arms so that he could carry her off to her room, as he did she nestled her head against his shoulder, hugging his neck, "Thank you for understanding."

"Hey, no problem." Fox replied, rubbing his muzzle against her head, "You can explain everything when you fell like it. Right now just get some sleep. Okay?"

"Mm-hm." She whimpered as her deep blue eyes fell shut.

Before Fox could even get the blue vixen to her room her light, nearly inaudible snore was already making him smile. You'd figure that by now, with all the healing she had done, she wouldn't get so tired from doing it anymore, but, Fox simply figured that the ability didn't work like that. He rushed the thought from his mind however as he lay the blue beauty on her bed, removing her boots before pulling the blankets over her. He brushed the hair from her face before lightly kissing her on the forehead. As he left the room Fox looked back at the vision one more time, before stepping out into the hall where he found that his mother was standing there with a half cocked grin...

"What?" He smiled.

The white vixen shook her head, "More like your father than you'll ever know." She said proudly, "C'mon, lets go get something to eat. Creed wants to talk to you about something.

**-000-**

As usual there was not much for the word of action on the ship, there were several animals in the ship's kitchen, two of whom were Mika and Creed, the large red vulpine was taking some sort of cooking lesson from the pale furred Minx. Jane was at the time sitting by at one of the room's many tables, keying away at a laptop that she'd come up with to replace the one Creed had destroyed, Lastrad and Gwen were the only others in the room. As Fox took a seat Creed looked into the room for a moment...

"So..." He started as he turned his attention back to what Mika was doing, "...that's it, huh?" He asked, "Omni's gone to hell, Syler won't be attacking anyone for a while, and we have the sword. Didn't think the end would come out this quietly."

"I don't think it has yet." Fox corrected the large vulpine, "Something just......it still feels wrong. It shouldn't have been this easy. Something's still missing.." He said.

Creed sighed, "Can't just be happy with winning can you?" He asked.

Fox sighed and turned his attention to his mother, "Mom...Krystal seems to think we should go to Aetheria to see the Drogan about something."

Vixy thought to herself before nodding, "She really is thinking ahead." She said with a smile, "Fox the Drogan are very special people. You see they possess something known as "Ancestral Knowledge", do you know what that is?"

Fox simply shook his head...

"Well look at it this way Fox..." She said, "When we are born, we know nothing, and as we age, that is how an average animal gathers what we call knowledge. Drogan don't work that way...nobody really knows exactly how it works but, they are born with all the knowledge they will ever need. Things known by their parents and grandparents somehow are passed along a family line, almost like genes." Vixy said, "I think Krystal may be thinking that the Drogan can tell us something about the sword that we may need to know."

Fox thought for a moment, knowing something more about the blade couldn't really hurt matters at this point, any information could really only help matters to further themselves. As he thought about this, Creed and Mika walked into the room setting a plate in front of everyone. As Creed stopped, handing a plate to Fox a powerful smell caught his attention...

"What the hell?" He asked sniffing the plate, "This steak smells like burnt hair."

Creed and Mika chuckled at they sat down across from Fox, "Haha, um actually...that would be me." Creed said pulling up his shirt to show where a flame had burned a whole in the blue tank top searing his fur.

"He's a horrible cook." Mika laughed, "But, at least he's willing to learn."

Creed chuckled a bit, "Yeah. Well since Fox and Krystal are all lovey-dovey again, I figured this should be something for me to pick up. I'm gonna have a lot of alone time on my paws when this is all over."

Mika simply remained quiet...

"So..." Creed said looking to Vixy, "Is that whole...Knowledge thing, some sort of telepathic thing?"

"That's always been my belief Creed." Vixy assured him, "Unfortunately, they've always been very withdrawn from society."

"Why would they do that?" Mika asked.

Vixy smiled, "Well dear. There are some Drogan that can read into the future just as easily as you can a book by turning it's pages." The white vixen replied, "They also understand that there are people in the galaxy that would try to use this power for some...well less than noble acts."

"But the future isn't set in stone..." Creed said, "According to Davious Ghivatti's theory of quantum refraction there cannot be only one path to the future. That's why time travel is impossible, the machine would never know where to take you."

Vixy chuckled, "And Ghivatti was right, according to the Drogan, the future is ever-shifting, it could turn out one way one day and be nothing like that the next. Because despite seeing into the future, every living thing out there at all times, are all making decisions that shape the future into what it is...but, say something came into the picture that set the future into one path and one path only..."

"Then the Drogan would know it." Creed replied, "So, you think Krystal knows something that the rest of us don't?"

Vixy sighed, "The only one that can really be sure about that. Is Krystal herself."

Fox started waving his paws back and forth in front of his face before swallowing a bite of his food, "Stop...with the time talk, you're gonna make my head burst. I swear you guys are as bad as Slippy." Fox stopped himself pinching the space between his eyes, "Look I'm sorry guys, I've just got a headache right now. I've got a lot of crap going through my head right now."

"Well dear you should finish your food and go lay down." Vixy said, "A good nap would do you some good anyhow."

Fox smiled a bit, she sounded like he was just a kit again, "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Of course I'm right." Vixy smiled, "I'm your mother, I'm always right."

Fox laughed a bit, along with everyone else in the room. Regardless, however, she was right, he was tired, and having a full stomach only made the feeling worse. It wasn't long before the vulpine found himself staggering through the halls, stopping for a moment as he finally reached the door to his room...unfortunately, as he reached for the palm scanner next to the door his mind told him not to go inside. It took a moment for him to filter out what was going on before turning and heading back down the hall to another room, where he entered to find the blue furred angel still fast asleep. Unable to determine what bizarre emotion was driving him he slowly climbed into the bed next to her. The vixen reacted almost immediately to his presence rolling over and nuzzling his neck a bit before fading back off to sleep. With her there in his arms he found no problems sleeping, this was his idea of paradise, the only place where his dreams and reality clashed, when she was in his arms...

* * *

**-2:08am GST-**

**-3 hours en route to Aetheria-**

**-Nemesis Training Facility 1-b-**

Jane sat on the edge of a rather large canvas sparring ring, the elastic ropes the only thing supporting her sore back as she quenched her parched throat with a full water bottle. Every inch of her golden yellow fur was drenched with sweat, she was only happy that nobody could see her wearing the incredibly tight and uncomfortable sports bra that she and Mika were both wearing, that matched the spandex shorts that reached down her thighs, she scratched at her leg a bit...

"Are these clothes really necessary?" She asked, "They itch like crazy."

Her white furred instructor sat next to her pouring a bit of water over her golden colored hair, "It's necessary, unless you like rashes." She replied, "And don't worry about the itching, that'll go away once you get used to the material."

Jane took a few moments to catch her breath, "Thanks by the way...I would have asked Krystal to teach me but, she seems to have enough problems without adding me to the list."

"It's no problem Jane. I've never had a student before...so this should be a learning curve for both of us." The Minx smiled, "You wanna tell me why exactly we're doing this yet?"

Jane shook her head, "No...you'd just laugh at me."

Mika looked a bit insulted, "Now why would I do that?"

Jane simply looked at the floor...

"It's about Creed isn't it?"

Jane sighed as she nodded in agreement, "A blind man could see it from space." She said, "The difference in the way he looks at me....and..."

Mika caught the hint almost instantly, "And...the way he looks at me." She finished the feline's sentence, "Look, Jane...if I overstepped a boundary or something I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize to me..." Jane replied, "He's never shown any interest in me...not even a little. Even when I try to force him to notice me...he just looks right through me."

Mika rested her arm on the cat's shoulders, "Well...if it makes you feel any better...he treats me more like a war buddy than anything else." She reassured Jane, "I honestly think there's a lot more to Creed than you may think. The kind of things he's gone through...they don't just go away like he says they do. Those kind of experiences...they can change a lot of things about who you are. I should know I've been there. I think that may be why the two of us get along so well. We've walked a mile in each other's shoes." She said with a light chuckle, "...well, so to speak. No offense to Creed, but he has some big ass feet."

Jane couldn't help but laugh, she knew it was true but, she'd never actually thought about it, "Listen, Jane. My mom only told me one thing about love when I asked her about it a long time ago..."

Jane wiped a tear from her eye as her laughter subsided, "Really...what did she say?"

Mika sighed a bit at the memory, "Love yourself, before you can love another." She said, "You're a good kid...and you're smart as hell...but, you don't treat yourself they way you should. Take a little time, and look for the person you should be, instead of the person others think you should be." She said, "Cuz I really don't think that the real you is someone that comes on as strongly as you do."

Jane scoffed a bit at herself, "I didn't always act the way I do. It was just odd, my sister acted this way her entire life and everything worked out fine for her. She has everything now; love, money, a family. It all came so easily to her."

Mika laughed at the idea, "Hey!" Jane half shouted, "What's so funny!"

"Where the fuck is the fun in having life handed to you on a silver platter?" The Minx asked, "If you don't have to work and bleed for something, is it really even worth looking for? Really. Would you even be half as interested in Creed if he was slobbering all over you every chance he got?" Jane looked shocked she'd never really even thought about it, "You don't seem like the kind of person that just wants people to give her a free pass through life, Jane. The real people out there, that deserve what they have, are the ones that fight for it. I mean, look at Fox and Krystal...you've heard what they've been through right?"

Jane thought about all the years of things Krystal had told her they couple had been through, "Yeah."

"Well look at them. You couldn't pry them apart if your life depended on it...sure it took 'em god only knows how long to get there...but, it's like I said, they fought for what they wanted." The pale Minx said, "But, at least you've taken the first step...this is something I don't think anyone would suspect you doing."

Jane chuckled, "True. I've never really fought anyone before, daddy kind of had a habit of being overprotective of his little girl." Jane took a moment to gather her thoughts, "Mika...regardless of anything that happens in the future...I'm glad I met you, you're a good friend."

Mika sighed with a happy smile, "I'm happy to hear that...and I'm glad we ran into you guys too." She said climbing to her feet, "Now...ready for a little more training before we go to bed?"

Jane chuckled, "Anytime..."

"There's a good girl..." Mika said stepping into the center of the ring, "Now come and get me."


	64. Chapter LXIII

**Author Notes: **Sorry if this chapter came up a bit short in comparison to the last few. I'm currently working on the ending of the Fic, and hopefully before I get started on part 2 I'll be able to sift through the older chapters of this fic and clean things up a bit...as I read back toward the first several chapters I realized that the last chapters make them look kinda crappy...anyhow. Don't forget to R&R, thanks for the loads of support, and I'll C'ya next update...

_The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox_

* * *

**-Chapter LXIII-**

**-11:45am-**

**-Nemesis Medical Bay-**

Krystal moved around the room freely, as a light gray furred she wolf sat on an empty bed, Shera had been feeling a bit under the weather for some time now, and unfortunately Krystal had forgotten that she was supposed to check up on the poor lupine after they all got back from retrieving the last piece of the blade, luckily her night of sleep was not interrupted, which she gave partial credit to Fox for being there, she always slept better when he was there with her. At the moment however, her only attention was toward the sleep deprived wolf that sat there waiting for the the blue vixen's analysis of the problem. Krystal had run all the tests that she'd been shown before; before joining the Star Fox team all those years ago, she was partially trained as a medical officer as well, something that was determined the team was in great need of. Krystal soon made her way back into Shera's part of the room wearing a large smile on her face...

"I'm glad you can find some sort of happiness in my suffering..." The wolf mumbled.

Krystal chuckled, "You're not suffering either..." She said looking at a small readout page on a clipboard, "You only check out for one ailment that I've ever really heard of."

"And what sickness is that?"

Krystal laughed, "Morning sickness."

Shera's eyes doubled in size, "What?" She asked in a stunned voice.

"Yup..." The blue furred vixen said handing Shera the all the information, "Congratulations, mommy. If I had to guess by the read out...I'd say you've been pregnant for about 10 weeks."

The gray furred wolf smiled, "So...that's what made him change his mind. How did he know?"

Krystal decided not to pry, "Well...all I can say is just try to take it easy from now on."

"I will..." Shera said placing her paw on her stomach.

Krystal placed a paw on the lupine's shoulder, "Don't worry about it...he'll be back soon enough."

**-Somewhere in Lylat-**

A large red ship floats aimlessly in the orbit of a nearby moon, it hadn't left it's current position in over two weeks. Wolf had resorted back to an old passion in work, map making. He never really was able to find out what he loved so much about it, it was just what he'd always planned to do for a career when he grew up, somewhere along the line, he simply drifted off and became a mercenary. And now with his wife with him, he had no reason for mercenary life anymore. Unfortunately, what he considered his biggest mistake ever, was standing in the docking bay of his ship. A white furred she wolf stood by near the entrance to the docking bay as her rather large bodied gray furred mate made his way to see the timber wolf that had just landed on his ship...

"What the fuck do you want Jared?" He growled.

Jared simply looked Wolf in the eyes, "I just need to talk to you...ten minutes that's all I ask." He said, "Please, if not for me then for Shera."

Wolf turned away from Jared taking a moment to wipe the burning tears from his eyes, just hearing her name hurt him on more levles than anyone could have possibly understood, "Ten minutes...then get the fuck offa my ship."

Jared didn't dare take another step toward the old wolf, "Wolf...there's no way that I can tell you how sorry I am for what happened...but, whether or not you want to hear it, our leaving was her idea." He said, "I love her...more than anything in this universe, and I know that you love her just as much, if not more than I ever possibly could, but, she needs you both. Especially right now. That's why I came here to ask for your permission to marry her."

Wolf's paws clenched into fists, "How many times do I have to tell you?" He growled, "YOU WON!! ALRIGHT!?! My own daughter hates my fuck'n guts, and it's all because of you. And you've got the gall to come her and ask me something like that?" He asked, "Get the fuck off my ship!"

"NO!!!" The tone in Jared's voice was loud enough that it actually frightened Kala for a brief moment, "Not until I have your permission."

Wolf's muscles tightened to the point that the fabric of his sleeves threatened to give way to his bicep. His blank look was one that Kala had only seen once before, and it meant nothing good for the one that had just insulted him on his own ship. Jared had never been more afraid of anything in his entire life. He couldn't even compare himself to Fox, this wolf was considered the only animal in Lylat anywhere near Fox's ability, and some had speculation that Wolf was much stronger. Yet, his footing never gave even as the monstrous lupine stood over him, breathing a furious heat in Jared's face. There was a moment that Jared's mind told him to run, to simply climb back into his arwing and get as far away from this animal as he possibly could, but, as he could hear Wolf's knuckles crack, he could only close his eyes and wait. The shock felt as thought he'd been stricken in the face by a slab of sheer granite causing him to collide quite roughly with the arwing behind him. He wasn't certain but, Jared suspected that the punch may have broken his jaw...

"I...understand...how you feel..." He managed to say as he pulled himself to his feet, "but, you need to know, that I'd never do anything to betray your trust, or Kala's. But, I will do anything for Shera. Even if that means making the only important people in my life hate me..."

"SHUT UP!!!" Wolf shouted slamming the back of his paw into the side of Jared's face dragging the poor animal to the floor, "Where do you get off coming here? Bringing all this up?"

Jared knew the rumors were true now, there had never been a punch thrown, it had only been the back of Wolf's paw, "I'm not...trying to insult you. I just......want you...to understand."

"What do I need to understand?" Wolf asked in a surprisingly calm voice, "You took away the most important thing in my life...after all I did for you."

Even though the pain in his jaw was more than he cared to admit the tears in his eyes were caused more from the fact that his mentor simply chose not to believe him, "You need to understand...that I left the way I did, because Shera asked me to...and because I love her." His right eye refused to open from the last shot he'd taken, "She simply didn't think you'd approve...that's why she left."

The only part that burned more than anything was the fact that Wolf knew Jared was telling the truth. It boiled inside of him until every ounce of what he felt burst outward, driving his fist into the poor animal's face. This time as Jared hit the floor he knew he jaw was broken, he barely held onto his consciousness, as he lay there trying his hardest to comprehend the force behind the old lupine's fist. As Wolf turned to leave the docking bay, a loud pop caused him to turn about, only to see that Jared had reset his jaw as he was somehow willing himself to stand up, even though his knees threatened to give out on him...

"You can beat me all you want..." He said to the blurred figure in front of him, "...you can punch me, kick me, kill me for all I care...but, I'm not leaving...until you say, yes."

Wolf managed to walk back to Jared taking the bloody lupine up by his collar, effortlessly holding him several feet off the ground with a single arm, "What are trying to prove by getting yourself killed?"

"I don't need to prove anything..." Jared mumbled, "...but, I don't want....our cub...to grow up. Without....you.........." The timber wolf's words trailed off as his battered brain finally gave out, causing him to fully loose consciousness.

Wolf could only stand there still debating with himself whether or not to dump the animal in space right where the y were., before a soft paw rested on his shoulder...

"Wolf...think about what you're doing." Kala said, "He came all this way...just to have you beat him half to death. Like it or not, he is going to be your first grandchild's father."

Wolf dropped the battered animal to the hard metal floor, and for a moment a slight smirk tugged at the corner of his lip...

"That's twice he's stood up to me." He said, "And he's never even thrown a punch. I've seen him fight, he could have held me off any time he wanted."

"Maybe he really doesn't want to fight anymore." Kala replied checking on the poor animal.

Wolf sighed, "When I found him that was all he ever did, hell fighting was the only thing keeping him alive."

"Maybe our daughter's just given him a better reason for living."

Wolf thought to himself for a moment before looking to the door to the docking bay, "Wolf?" Kala called, as he walked toward the doors vanishing from the room. The old lupine had been given some serious things to think about.

**-The Nemesis-**

**-Hyperspace en route to the Dan'jas system-**

Late night Creed once again found himself unable to sleep, luckily, as usual he was not the only one, however this time the large vulpine found himself in the training room with Kaleb. He liked his old friend's son, the young lion was quiet and withdrawn, but, he was every bit the exact same person his father was when Creed had known him. The feline lay on his back slowly lifting a rather large sum of weights supported by the machine's metal bar. The kid was far more well built than Creed remembered his father had been, then again, Kaleb was also in a different line of business. Being that Creed's arms were as strong as they were ever going to get, he spent most of his time working on the rest of his body, in particular the leg press. Creed had finished his exercises when he decided to stroll over to Kaleb's side...

"You're pretty strong kid."

Kaleb exhaled as he locked the bar back onto the rack, "Thanks...wouldn't mind having arms like those though."

Creed chuckled, "Funny...I was gonna say the same thing."

"What? I'd give anything to be as strong as you are." Kaleb said rubbing his neck, "You never have to worry about loosing any strength, you're arms'll always be just as strong as they are now."

Creed turned around walking toward the ring, sliding his fingers along the satin support ropes, "They seem real enough when you look at 'em now...but, they're always going to be the same thing under the surface, they're always gonna be the same things. Cold metal and circuits, the cost of having neural links isn't worth the pay off."

"Now you're just talk'n crazy." Kaleb laughed as he toweled the sweat from his forehead.

"You ever been with a woman, Kaleb?" Creed suddenly asked.

"What the hell does that have to do with...."

"Just answer the question." Creed cut him off.

"Yeah...of course I have. I'm not a kid."

Creed sighed, "Think about all the best parts of those experiences...all feeling. These things don't have any..." He said running his fingers across the hard canvas of the ring floor, "I get a rough idea of things like, density and texture, but...no warmth, no cold, no pain...they aren't alive anymore. You have no idea what it's like not to be able to feel anything...when you're like I am, you're just...not a complete person anymore." He said, "Even if you loved someone...you'd never be able to hold them in your own arms..."

Kaleb thought for a moment, "I'm sorry...I didn't know you saw it like that."

"Well..." Creed replied with a short grin, "Once you've spent some time like this...you start missing certain things about having real arms. You don't even really notice it at first..."

"I guess that goes with just about any type of cybernetic prosthesis huh?" Kaleb asked.

Creed nodded, "It's been that way with everyone that I've known with 'em. Being part machine changes you Kaleb...you may never notice it yourself but, others would. You eventually begin to realize that machines and living things cannot and will not ever be the same thing. No matter how advanced the the technology, you'll always be a cyborg. A "cyborg", you hear that? That's what Lylat database registers my existence as...nothing mentioned about me being a fox, just a cyborg. I don't even get the common decency of being called a living thing anymore."

Kaleb scratched the back of his neck, "That doesn't mean you aren't alive."

"Really?" Creed asked pulling the synthetic sheath down exposing the metal arm beneath, "You see this?" He asked pointing to a stamped logo.

"What is that?" Kaleb asked himself looking closer, "Property of T.A.A.M..."

Creed pulled the sleeve back up his arm, "Trinity Accord Allied Military. Property. I'm just a thing..." The large vulpine chuckled, "Something someone can stamp a fuck'n label on. I've tried my hardest to come to terms with it. These arms have saved my ass and my friends asses...but, as far as I'm concerned...I'd give anything to have my own arms back."

Kaleb thought for a moment, "Hey, at least none of us treat you like a machine, right?"

Creed scoffed, "Yeah. At least...I think that's the only thing that really keeps me hanging around here."

"You gotta admit though..." Kaleb said, "Having arms like those can be pretty fun."

Creed laughed out loud this time, "Yes they can." He replied happy that the kid had changed the subject, "Well...if you're done here, I think you may want to get some rest."

Kaleb yawned at the mention of sleep, "Yeah...what about you?"

"Nah." Creed replied, "I got my sleep..."

"You can keep that schedule." The feline laughed before his face became a slight bit more serious, "Hey, Creed. Does it strike you as odd that Arlex and Syler seemed to know where we were going before we could ever get there? Or am I just over thinking things?"

Creed chuckled, "No. Fox and I talked about it a few hours ago. He, Silver, and I are going to do a sweep of the entire ship...just to make sure we haven't been bugged or something."

"What if it's...one of the others?" Kaleb asked a bit worried.

Creed chuckled, "What if it's me?" He asked, "Don't jump to conclusions. We aren't letting anyone else know about the inspection it's just between me, Silver, Fox, and you...you're gonna help."

"No problem. When are we gonna start?"

Creed thought for a minute about whether or not they were being watched, "About 4 o'clock...I'll wake you up when we're ready. Just make sure you don't tell anyone...got that?"

"Yeah, but won't this seem suspicious if there is a spy here?"

Creed smiled, the kid knew what he was talking about, "Yeah...but, we've set up for that little problem. At exactly 3:39 this morning, the hyperdrive is gonna "give out"..." He said, "Just the four of us know anything about it...we haven't even told Krystal."

As Creed made his way down the hall he stopped and looked to the watch on hi s wrist, brushing away a bit of the synthetic fur that was blocking his ability to read the small object. It was 3:30...that meant he had enough time to stop for a bite and something to drink. The large vulpine had become content with having the ship to himself most nights...there was of course the rare occasion that one of the others couldn't find sleep and he would have company for several hours...but, for the most part, from about 12 o'clock, to usually 8 am...he was the only soul still moving about on the ship. Unfortunately, that was about to end for the most part....

**(Fox's room...)**

Fox was happy enough to get any measure of sleep, the thought of being constantly watched didn't set to well on his mind, fortunately, the blue vixen cuddled up against his side always seemed to make him think of nothing but her, the room had slowly become less his, and more theirs over the passing weeks, not that he minded any, he slept far better with her at his side. She shifted in her place a bit drawing her arm over his chest and nuzzling against his neck. Suddenly the two jerked in place for a moment as the entire ship seemed to bounce forward, pushing the two slightly toward the foot of the bed. The blue vixen groaned a bit in her sleep...

"Fox?" She whispered still keeping her eyes closed, "What was that?"

Fox lifted the angel's arm reluctantly rolling out of her embrace, "I'll go find out, okay? You just go back to sleep."

Krystal pulled his pillow close to her, "Hurry back okay?"

After climbing into his green cargos, Fox bent down kissing her on the forehead, "I'll come back as soon as I know what's wrong..." He said brushing back her blue bangs, "Promise."

It wasn't long before Creed was met in the kitchen by Fox, who sat down across from the large vulpine, and after a short wait, they were oddly enough, met by Silver, who took his seat. And the three sat conversing about what was to be done, until finally Kaleb came into the room...it was at least 20 minutes earlier than they'd planned, but, in the case that someone had overheard them this was a good thing. The four made their way down into the lower parts of the ship, they'd work their way from the bottom deck up, each carrying a scanner that would pick up on any frequency not originally from the ship. Each individual would take a set up area, scanning every room possible. With the four of them working at it, the entire scan took hours, it was almost 7 o'clock before they all converged and met back in the kitchen. Fox slowly went over all four scanners, hoping that there was some sort of bug on the ship, a listening device of any kind, he didn't care how minuscule it had to be. However, to his fear, and great disappointment the scans all turned up clean. The vulpine sighed with closed eyes as he lowered his head shaking it in disapproval of the situation before slowly standing and heading out of the kitchen...

"Creed." Silver started, "What's wrong with Fox?"

The crimson furred fox only stood heading out of the room himself, "Think about it Silver..." Kaleb said, "If there's no bug on the ship...then there's only one other way for Syler and Arlex to get any information..." He said pausing for a moment, "...someone on this ship is a traitor." The cat finished heading out of the room.

Silver could only sit there in utter disbelief...could it be possible that they were using him to somehow monitor the team? He hoped not...but, compared to learning that someone on the ship was helping Syler, it was the only positive outlook he could hope for.

Fox slowly made his way back to his room, and looked down the hall at all the doors where his friends where all sleeping. He lowered his head as he turned away from the hall back into his room. At least being next to Krystal for a few more short hours would bring him some small measure of comfort, but, when he woke up the crew would go about their day, as Fox worked on filtering out who could possibly be supplying his enemies with information...desperately hoping that this was all just some form of cruel coincidence. He tapped Krystal on the shoulder who moved her arm welcoming him back to his place in her arms, which he happily took...

"What was wrong?" She asked lightly as she took back her previous position.

Fox sighed rubbing her shoulder a bit, "Hopefully...nothing."


	65. Chapter LXIV

**Author Notes:** Woo-hoo! No more writer's block, a few nights of sleepless endeavor and gallons of coffee have cured me. Okay...there's a bit of an unexpected twist in this chapter. Apparently this won't be done by 65 but, to be honest it's wittling down to that last few chapters...I'm almost certain that it will not make it to chapter 70...ALMOST certain...*Crosses Fingers*...anyhow. R&R, thanks for the massive tons of support, and I'll see you all next time....

_The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox

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_

**-Chapter LXIV-**

It was only after the two vulpine had been awake for a short while that Fox began to fill Krystal in on their current problem, she fully understood the stress that the entire situation was causing him. He trusted every soul on the ship, even those he'd only known a short while, he did not want to think of any of them as a traitor, but, it seemed like he had little of any other choice. As he sat there on the edge of the bed, his blue furred mate knelt behind him wrapping her arms around his neck and brushing her head against the side of his. She could feel the distress coursing though his mind, if he couldn't trust the people that he held closest to him who could he trust?

"Fox...it's probably nothing like you think." She reassured him, her bare chest pressing against his back slightly warmed his thoughts.

Fox sighed, "I just don't know what to think anymore. I don't wanna think of any of these guys as spies, but..." He drifted off as he lowered his head.

"Fox we all know how you feel...but, if it will help remove these thoughts from your head." She said, "Bring the crew to me one person at a time. I'll scan their minds and find out what I can...it's not much but it's all I can do."

Fox knew she didn't like reading the minds of others, it made her feel as though she was invading the person's most personal of spaces. With a reluctant sight, Fox agreed with the vixen's idea, it was the most accurate way to actually get to the person without them noticing that they were being judged. He kissed the vixen before finally making his way out of the room, and heading toward the kitchen hoping that he'd find everyone, unfortunately all he found was his mother, Lastrad, Gwen, and Creed. Fox walked over the large vulpine who leaned against the viewing window of the room, whispering something to him that the others could not hear...

"Yeah, I understand."

Fox sighed guiltily, "You know I don't think that..."

Creed rested a powerful mitt on Fox's shoulder, "Fox. I understand, I'll go see Krystal right now."

After a short while Fox found himself sitting at a table drinking a cup of coffee, where his mother tried her hardest to decipher what could possibly be wrong with her son. His head rested in his paws stressfully, as he took a small sip of the dark drink in front of him every so many minutes. And after a while, Krystal's voice came through to the back of his mind...

"_Okay...I'll call for another now...who's in there with you?"_

Fox looked around for a moment,_ "Mom, Lastrad, and Gwen." _He nodded a bit and stood up before making his way to Lastrad and pulling him off to the kitchen.

Lastrad then walked away from the cooking area stopping to tell Gwen that he'd return in a few minutes. As Fox sat back down across from his mother, the white vixen thought for a moment. First Creed left the room, now Fox had apparently told Lastrad to leave the room for some reason. She became even more suspicious when Lament entered the room not 10 minutes later having Gwen leave the room for some reason but taking his seat at his table again. As this all happened, Fox simply sat there in a depressed stupor, at some points she could have sworn that he'd be crying had his eyes not been hidden from her sight. As Gwen returned he set his mother to learn the factor for his depression on her own to have Krystal prove his mother to, not be the one they were looking for. As the short time passed, the white vixen finally reentered the kitchen to find the lonely captain sitting there, Lastrad and Gwen had left a short time ago. Now with a firm grasp on the poor animal's situation there was nothing else a mother could do, as she simply made her way to her son's side. As she stood there, Fox finally looked away from his paws which were red from the tears he was constantly trying to fight back. Realizing why she was standing there the chestnut furred vulpine wrapped his arms around his mother's waist wiping his eyes against her stomach. Vixy stroked the top of his head, the same was she used to when he was young and hurt...

"It's alright Fox...It's not your fault."

**-000-**

Hours passed, and one animal at a time Krystal scanned the minds of each member of the crew, finding no more than their own personal thoughts and feelings. She distracted each of them with a small menial chore of some kind so that they would not notice that she was actually diving into their minds. Both Roxy and Jane helped her to clean up the medical bay, finding only a silver vulpine in the bunny's thoughts, while finding a mass of confused thought in Jane's mind referring to Creed as well as a number of thoughts that she didn't fully understand. She managed to think of something to keep each of them busy long enough to get an in depth search of their minds. Unfortunately, there was nothing unusual about any of their minds, well, nothing apart from the fact that none of the animals on the ship ever seemed to have had a normal life. Until she made her way to the last person possible...however there was something odd about Sia that the blue furred vixen could not place. Her background through her mind painted a very different portrait of the animal...she was branded like a slave but, for the most part there was no memory of the time she'd spent with the slavers, a time she was certain would not be easily forgotten. There were also certain parts of her memory that appeared to be missing, one memory would display the animal as a young child, while the next would present her as a teenager. However that wasn't the worst of it, as Krystal continued something hit her causing her to wince inwardly. Like running headlong into a solid wall. It was as Krystal backed out of the creature's mind that she smiled...

"Thank you for your help Sia..." She said, "I can handle the rest from here."

The young canine faked a light smile as she headed out of the room...

Hours passed before Fox and Krystal met up in the kitchen, they had an idea of how to get the truth, even if Krystal couldn't forcefully take the information she needed. As her and Fox sat down to a nice lunch, Krystal tried her hardest to console Fox toward the problem at hand. The thought of a crew member being a traitor to him and the others was enough to drive him out of his mind. He didn't like the idea of thinking of any of his friends like that. However, there was a necessary meeting of the entire crew called to the Nemesis bridge. Fox seemed a little unhappy to see everyone in one room, this had never meant anything good for Star Fox, and it seemed that the tradition had changed much. Krystal called for everyone's attention, as she activated the lock to the bridge door. None of the crew members really understood what was going on until she called for everyone's attention...

"Alright everyone..." She said, "I want all of you to line up, shoulder to shoulder in front of Fox's seat. Fox you too."

Fox nodded silently before joining the others in line, "Now...some of you already know why we're here." The blue vixen said sitting down in Fox's chair, "And our captain has left it to me to solve this problem. One of the people in this room, regardless to whether or not it's been intentional, has been supplying a very powerful enemy with information regarding our group. Today I have scanned the minds of every animal on this bridge and I have a general idea of who it is...Gwen, come here please."

Gwen looked shocked as her eyes began to well up, "But...I—I haven't..."

"No...don't cry...you aren't being blamed for anything. Just please, come over here." The blue vixen said standing up, and hugging the poor animal as she made her way to Krystal, "I'm sorry if I scared you." She said pulling the pale furred tiger away from here, "Now. Everyone here, has passed my Telepathy without a problem...but, there are things that even my Telepathy cannot see, and to bring this in the open se all know what Gwen can do...correct?" Everyone nodded, "Good. Well, this is how it works. Over the time they've been here, Gwen has made contact with all of us at least once, so touching any of us shouldn't give her any new memories, since she has been there for those memories...right?" She asked looking to the feline.

"Y-yes...that's right, but I haven't touched everyone in this room."

Krystal looked to the group with a nod, "Exactly..." She said causing a large, red furred vulpine to wrap his arms without warning around Sia's arms holding her in place.

"GET OFF OF ME!!!" She screamed in surprise.

Krystal looked very coarsely at the animal, "That's funny Sia...I was under the impression that you couldn't talk." The blue vixen said as Sia struggled against Creed's grip, "And I wouldn't try fighting too hard...Creed could easily crush every bone in your body without even thinking about it. Now who the fuck are you?" The canine simply glared at the blue vixen, "See this is where Gwen comes in. If you'd prefer not to talk, and my telepathy cannot get the information we need. She can, because your mental defenses are no match to her ability."

Gwen looked to Krystal who nodded to her, "Don't worry. We're all here with you. If something happens we'll break the connection, alright?"

The white cat smiled and nodded before making her way to Sia's side, "This is your last chance to say something. If you care to defend yourself."

The husky refused to reply, "Fine...Gwen go ahead."

The white furred feline lay her paw on Sia's shoulder instantly jerking her head back as ever experience and memory in the husky's head instantly flashed through her mind. Scenes began tugging at Gwen's mind, the powerful rush of information made her breathing begin to grow erratically rapid. Every day, every minute of the animal's life began to flash through Gwen's mind, by the time it was over it would be as though the canine's memories were all Gwen's as well. The process seemed just fine until Gwen began to panic, the visions of the husky's thoughts were too much. Fox instantly rushed to get Gwen away but, as soon as he touched the poor animal another surge of thoughts flooded her mind forcing a shill cry out of Sia as Gwen's claws dug into her shoulder causing blood to flow down her arm. Fox tried his hardest to pull Gwen loose but, her paw was locked...

"LASTRAD!!! PRY HER PAW LOOSE!!!" Fox shouted.

Lastrad quickly grabbed Gwen's now red paw, prying her fingers from their place before the cat's body went limp in Fox's arms. Before long Lastrad carried the poor feline off to her room where she could rest. Krystal took this moment to look to Sia's injury, and quickly began to heal it the best she could...

"You lied to us..." Fox said.

Sia refused to look at Fox, "I never said I couldn't talk...you all just assumed I couldn't. Why are you even healing me if you think I work for your enemy?"

Krystal stopped as soon as she knew that the wounds were sealed, "Nobody is accusing you of anything...but, we have to know if someone here is giving Syler and Arlex information. I'm sorry but, we cannot afford to be unsafe about this. Not when we're so close to finally being rid of the sword."

Sia couldn't care less about the vixen's words, "Fox...I never meant to hide anything from you I'm sorry. I was scared."

Fox thought to himself, "I'm sorry Sia...but, I have to be certain. Creed take her to the brig...but, make sure she has enough blankets for the night. I'll be down there to talk with her as soon as I can."

As Creed carried Sia off toward the lower deck of the ship, Fox turned to Krystal, "I don't know why..." He said, "But, I believe her. The look on her face wasn't that of a spy being caught...it looked more like she'd been betrayed or something."

"I'm not sure why but, she was trying to hide something from me..." Krystal replied as the others made their way out of the room, "Besides you saw the way Gwen reacted to touching her." Fox sighed at the truth, "I know you want this all to be a false alarm, but, you can't afford to be the normal, loving person you always are right now."

It was hours before everything seemed relatively normal again. Fox had set the ship to continue it's course to their destination, it was late night again when Fox made his way down to the lonely husky sitting in her small cell. He made certain to bring her a large portion of hot food from the dinner that had been prepared, she still refused to look at him. Even after she began to eat the food he'd brought to her. The cell had been set up much more comforting than it normally would be for her, being there was a mattress and several thick blankets for her...

"Sia...I'm sorry this happened. But Krystal's ability doesn't lie." Fox said, "What are you hiding?"

The frustrated husky threw her fork against the wall, "DON'T YOU THINK I'D TELL YOU IF I KNEW!?!" She yelled, "I can't remember anything. The fact that I even remember my own name is because I found it on a necklace that I lost on that planet when I was still little."

"Why didn't you tell me you could talk?" Fox asked pulling a seat up to the cell door.

Sia wiped away a stream of tears, "About 3 years ago. These animals came down onto that planet you found me on...they acted nice enough, so I started to go with them. They held me down...took turns..." She said, "Do you have any idea how scary that is, when you have no idea what they're doing to you?" She asked still fighting her own tears at the only memories she had, "After they were done they did this." She said standing and turning her back to Fox, pulling the back of her jeans down far enough form him to see the branded mark on the top of her left cheek, "I can't remember anything about my past, and everything I do remember, is nothing but unimportant stuff that doesn't help. When I first found you I thought you might be one of their friends. After I got loose they chased me, and I led them to the Djronex's cave...that would be those things that you and Krystal killed outside of my tree house...I got out, they weren't so lucky."

"If you thought I was one of them why'd you help me?"

"I kept telling myself to leave you there and let the Djronex have you...but, something told me that I shouldn't, that you were different." She said, "When you first said something to me...you were so nice to me. You thanked me...and I didn't know how to respond. By the time I was able to say anything you had already determined that I couldn't talk. So rather than say anything stupid..."

"You decided not to say a word at all." He chuckled, "That was a very childish thing to do. Is there anything you do remember?"

Sia simply shook her head, "No. Nothing past about 6 years ago. I don't even know how old I am."

"Most women would love to forget how old they are."

Fox smiled, "Well if you don't mind waiting. Gwen will know everything about you once she's recovered. Maybe she'll be able to help you get some of those memories back. I'll come down again in the morning and Mom says she'll stay down her to keep you company."

As Fox stood up she called his name, "Fox, wait, please. Stay here." She said, "Just until I go to sleep? I don't like to be alone. I always sleep in your mother's room but..."

Fox sighed, "I understand...I'll stay here..." He said sitting back down, "Mom should be down here in an hour or so."

* * *

**-000-**

Silver had mixed feelings about what was happening, he did not believe Sia was a bad person...she didn't seem like she would do something like that at all. Krystal had told everyone that it may still be a misunderstanding but, he still wanted everyone to be happy again. He sat on the edge of his bed, and a pair of soft paws wrapping about his chest caused him to smile a bit. Roxy knew where his mind was at the moment, he cared a lot for everyone he met, to Silver a friend was as good as family, as close as he'd ever get, the thought of loosing one simply seemed to make him very depressed. As she hugged the silver fox from behind, the pink bunny rested her head on his shoulder...

"Silver...everything is going to be fine." She said, "Just watch tomorrow Gwen will wake up, and this will all me one big misunderstanding just like Krystal said."

"I hope you're right..." He sighed.

Roxy sighed this time, "Silver...you love me, right?"

The vulpine quickly turned to look at her, "Of course I do."

"Good..." She said jolting forward and pulling him into a very deep kiss.

Over the time they'd been together, Silver had learned that he liked this attention very much, it made him feel happy and warm inside, not to mention giving him several other feelings that he was still a little vague about, being he was a bit embarrassed to ask anyone about them. He still didn't care though, nothing really seemed to matter to him when he was with her, and from what he'd heard and seen, that was as much a definition to love as he'd been able to find. As the two fell back onto Silver's bed, their kiss deepened until Roxy moved her tongue into Silver's mouth. This was something she'd only done several times, it was different, but oddly every time she'd kissed him this deeply something had happened that made her stop. This time however nobody interrupted her, and as the kiss became more passionate Silver mimicked something he'd seen in several places before gently squeezing her rump, causing Roxy to gasp a little before actually kissing him harder than before. After a moment or so the silver furred fox found himself on his back with the pink rabbit sitting across his abdomen...she smiled at him before pulling her shirt over her head tossing it onto the floor before throwing her bra next to it. Silver had only seen her breasts once, and that was fully accidental by walking into her room once without knocking. When he closed his eyes Roxy laughed...

"What are you doing?" She chuckled.

Silver kept his eyes shut, "You told me not to look before..." He said recalling when he'd walked in on her changing.

Roxy pulled his face back toward her, "Silver....this is a bit of a different situation, I'm surprised you didn't learn about this already."

Silver opened his eyes now, "Learn about what?"

Roxy reached over turning off the light on the night stand with a slight chuckle rubbing her nose against his, "You'll see..."

**(3 days later...)**

Krystal and Fox stood over the white furred tigress whom had recently been moved to the medical bay, normally her recovery should have been quicker than this...but, something was wrong. Her heart rate was only just above normal, and her breathing seemed normal enough, as far as Krystal could tell there was no legitimate reason for her to still be unconscious. They had reached Aetheria hours ago, but, thanks to the feline's condition refused to leave the ship. However, eventually there was no other option. Oddly enough when most of the animals left the ship to head to the surface, Creed of all people decided to stay behind, which caused in course Jane and Mika to both stay as well, and Lastrad had no intention of leaving Gwen's side.

The pale wolf sat by making certain that he would be there when she woke. As he sat by the feline began to groan in her sleep, this was a good sign as she had not moved or said anything. For a moment she grimaced in her sleep causing Lastrad to look her over before brushing her bangs away from her face...

"Gwen?" He said, "Can you hear me? Gwen...."

Behind her eyes, in the depths of her mind the cat could hardly believe what she'd seen, thought she couldn't hear what was being said she could see the form of an animal sitting in the captain's seat, a small screen displaying the black furred face of Arlex. She wanted so badly to hear what was being said but, the voices simply escaped her, and as the black fox on the transmission screen vanished the lights of the room lit up the face of the one that they had been looking for. Gwen gasped...

"Creed how could you?"

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**Ps: That's right...CREED! Bet ya didn't see that one come'n...**


	66. Chapter LXV

**Author Notes: **Sorry if this chapter came up a little short...but, it was mainly to set up that last piece of the storyline before everything is finally laid out on the table and all the shit truly hits the fan before part 2. Once again I'm sorry that this chapter came up short...I wanted to make these last few chapters at least 4 or 5k words each, but, I can't complain. Thanks for the masses of support, R&R and I'll see you next update hopefully soon...

The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox

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**-Chapter LXV-**

**-Aetheria Surface-**

**-1:08pm-**

Fox and the others managed to pull down into the atmosphere and land in what was a beautifully kept green field surrounded by large pines of a type Fox had never before seen. The land here was green and untouched by the hand of the modern age, nothing to pollute the air, or lay waste to the pristine environments. It was places like this that made the vulpine want long for a day he'd be able to settle into a place where he could see this sort of environment on a daily basis. As the other's climbed from their ships, Vixy looked over the environment, she'd not seen land in the sort of condition she was seeing in years, it was a welcoming sight indeed. The fresh air seemed to clear Fox's lungs, and the sun seemed be refreshingly warm. As the large group stood in the clearing Krystal turned her attention toward the trees just a small ways in front of them. There was something there that only she would have noticed, having lived on Cerinia for the time she had, she knew how the Drogan were. She simply gave the animal it's space, if he or she was there, then indeed they already knew of Fox and his team's arrival. Fox instantly turned his attention the a set of light footprints in the thick grass, ready to pull his blaster when he saw the animal in question. A rather tall reptile of sorts, in the semblance of a lizard, thought with brighter scales with a bright sheen, a set of horns on it's head were arranged in such a manner that they seemed to form a sort of crown around it's forehead, it's eyes were a light golden color...

"Hello Fox McCloud..." The animal said, "I am Demona...and you've been expected for some time now." Her form became a bit more clear as she cleared the discance between them, "Our leader wishes to see Krystal...Drake seems to know you very well..."

Krystal's eyes widened, "Drake is alive?"

"Yes. As the only remaining oracle of our age, his life had to be spared in leaving Cerinia." She said with a light smile, "If you would all please follow me. We are not that far from our village."

The Drogan race was once revered as the only living ancestors to an ancient race of reptiles that were both feared, but at the same time honored as gods, because of their similarities to Dragons, the Drogan took on the name for their people. Fox and the others stayed close by their Dragon-esq guide, who led them through the thicket and into a large glade hidden from sight by the trees. The area was lush and thick with small canvas tents littered the area, though it seemed odd enough that no others seemed to be in the area, Fox found this to be odd but there was no call as these people seemed to know Krystal quite well. It was as they all approached a large tent that their guide, Demona stopped everyone...

"I apologize but, only Krystal may enter."

Fox looked to Krystal confusedly, "But, why only Krystal?" He asked looking back to Demona.

"I am afraid I do not know...it is the Oracle's will, so that is the way it will be."

Krystal kissed her worried mate's cheek, "Don't worry Fox...he's my friend from Cerinia. If this is his rule, then he has a good reason for it."

"Alright, but try to make it quick...something doesn't feel right."

"Alright." The blue vixen responded, "I'll make this as fast as I can...but, he does tend to talk a lot so I may be a while."

Demona held open the loose curtain that hung over the tent's opening allowing the vixen to enter. The sight of a green scaled Drogan, with a red mane of long hair smiling at her caused her to hug her old friend...

"I thought you were dead."

Drake sighed as Krystal took a seat on a soft mound of pillows, "Krystal...I know why you are here...so do not bother to say anything. Yes, Arlex does have one of your friends working for him, and no, it is not who you think it is, but I would advise you not to segregate this animal because of it's actions."

Krystal nodded lightly, "What about the blade? I don't want another incident like Vyrexia happening."

Drake smiled, "Krystal what do you truly believe happened to Vyrexia?" He asked, "Did you grow up your entire live actually believing that your people could commit such an atrocity? The Blade of Ages is not some weapon of worldly destruction...rather is was the cure." He said, "Krystal what do you remember about a story our parents used to tell about something called...The Vyserage?"

Krystal shuttered at the thought, "Mother used to scare me with those stories...but there is no way something that horrible could actually live..." She said pausing for a moment, so that Drake could reassure her, only to hear his silence, "Right?"

Drake paused, "I wish it were so..."

"Drake what are you talking about?"

Drake sighed, "Long ago Krystal...far before time was even a concept. The universe was occupied by nothing but two opposing matters; light and darkness. The two fought for control over the universe, and finally the two clashed, the shock from the meeting of the two forces attack on one another spread outward creating the universe as we know it. The sides were however uneven, and the light tore through the darkness like some sort of blade, nearly destroying it entirely. The light then began to spread bringing life to the worlds that spawned in the wake of the destruction. During those eons in which the light used to perfect the universe, unknown to all things, even the light, a small sliver of that darkness survived..."

"And that darkness..." Krystal interrupted.

Drake nodded, "Yes. That is why it was named Vyserage......Drogan word for Darkness. At some point the Vyersage began to gather back that small bit of strength that it still had and then, the universe learned how horrible the thing truly was. It despised the light for everything it was and everything it had created. It began to move from world to world, destroying everything it could that had a connection to the light, starting with any inhabitants of that world...then the world itself. For eons and eons it moved from one place to the next replacing what light it could with the darkness, until, it reached a small planet far away from the Lylat system...that planet was called Vyrexia." He said, "However, the Vyrexians had allies in places the darkness would never suspect. The Cerinians had come very far from the average fox, they had......evolved in ways that none before them had managed to, they were powerful, and fought back. Unfortunately, all the power of every Cerinian could not quell the death and destruction. My people had been following the Cerinians for a long time. My ancestors knew that it would be them that stopped the Vyserage. Though some of us were born with the ability to see into the future, the rule has always been the same. Do NOT reveal the future to any living soul. My ancestors however realized that without the assistance of the Drogan, the Vyserage would not be stopped, and it was with the combined power of Drogan, Vyrexian, and Cerinian, that the Blade of Ages was constructed. The weapon was as close to the light as any living creature had ever managed to get. Unfortunately, the blade was too close to the light...when it and the Vyserage met, the contact of the two forced shattered Vyrexia, causing it to crumbled. The impact of the two shattered the sword, and the only fragment remaining for the darkness within the Vyserage, was a single crystal shard. The shard was hidden away left in the care of the Cerinians, the sword was stored away should the Vyserage find a way out of it's prison..."

Krystal thought for a moment, "Wait. Everyone knew about this?" She asked, "What was the point in just covering something like this up?"

"Your ancestors had the same opinion...but, between them all, it was decided that this was the best course of action toward keeping the Vyserage from being revived."

"And what good did it do?" The blue vixen half shouted, "You wouldn't be telling me all this if you didn't think that thing was loose again!"

Drake chuckled, "Trust me when I tell you that of all people you are the one that needs to know this the most. Also, no matter what happens, do not loose faith. I am afraid that is as far as I can go without impairing the future. Were I to tell you anything specific about it, then it could change the future for the worst."

Krystal sighed as she brushed the hair from her left eye, following the motion scratching the side of her neck, "I...understand. Thank you, Drake. It's good to see that you're still alive and well."

"You still carry on as if I am not blind." The reptile chuckled as the blue vixen hugged him goodbye, "Regardless...it was good to see you again."

Krystal released the scaly animal and headed out of the tent, "And Krystal...if you would send that mate of yours next, there are some things that he must know...things meant only for his ears."

* * *

The vixen did not bother saying anything as she left the area, only that Drake wanted to speak with Fox before sending the vulpine inside. Fox found the place much too dark for an animal constantly wearing sunglasses now, and quickly pulled them loose resting them on his forehead. The Drogan sitting in the center of the room greeted Fox with a hearty smile, before giving him a gesture to sit where Krystal had previously...

"Before we start allow me to say..." Drake said, "Even though I have seen into the future I cannot tell you what it is I have seen."

Fox sighed, "I don't expect you to tell me anything about it. This is war, animals will die."

Drake sighed, "Fox, you know nothing about what this is...your battle with Arlex and Omni goes far beyond what you think. Many animals will loose their lives, some of whom are very close to you."

"But...that won't matter will it?" Fox replied, "Will Krystal at least be alright?"

"Yes...I can assure you that Krystal will be fine." Drake assured him. It was as this happened that Fox's communicator beeped.

"I believe Lastrad has something important to tell you." The animal said blindly pointing to his communicator.

Fox looked oddly at the reptile, not knowing whether or not to move, before the device started to go off again, he hadn't believed this whole thing about seeing into the future but, how did he already know about Lastrad?

"Yeah?" Fox said activating the device.

Lastrad's voice echoed back, "Fox! Gwen just woke up! It wasn't Sia! It was Creed!"

"WHAT!?!" Fox yelled, "ARE YOU SURE!?!"

"He took off with the blade...we can't find him anywhere and his arwing's gone."

Fox looked to Drake who nodded, "You knew about this?"

"Yes, but, do not worry. The blade is where it needs to be at the time...it is in the paws of the person who needs it the most right now."

Fox looked to his communicator, "Fox? Who are you talking to? What's going on?" He then looked back to Drake, "He isn't trying to help Arlex is he?"

"I am afraid that I cannot tell you. Everything will pan out, before the end you will know everything."

Fox paused long enough to tell Lastrad to track Creed's arwing, "Can you tell us where he's going?"

"No..."

"Why he's doing it?"

"No..."

"Can you tell me anything?"

Drake sighed, "Yes. He is your friend, trust him. If ever you had any faith in him at all, this should be all you need to hear. I think you should go now, he needs you all. I am certain you will find some sort of clue as to his whereabouts when you get back to your ship."

Fox stopped for a moment, "Good bye, Fox McCloud. We shall meet again. I will trust Krystal to inform you of the rest..."

Fox didn't hesitate after he got out of the tent, as soon as the group was together, they all found themselves rushing off behind the fox trying to get whatever information they could out of him. However, Fox refused to divulge any information. Even as they were boarding their arwings and Krystal was pulling at his leg...

"FOX! What's wrong!?! What did Drake tell you?" She shouted.

"It's about Creed just get back to the Nemesis as fast as possible."

* * *

**-Twenty Minutes Later-**

**-Nemesis Kitchen-**

The news of Creed's actions had come as a blow to everyone, especially Krystal who had spent so many years with the large vulpine. Upon hearing the news she left the kitchen with her ears laying flat on the top of her skull, her sight refusing to leave the floor in front of her. Fox could fell the betrayal she felt, she had begun to wish that Drake had just told her the truth. Everyone seemed to take the news hard, none quite as hard as Jane or Mika, but it was still a loss felt by every member of the team. Silver had some shred of comfort in Roxy, but, oddly one of the animals to take the news the hardest was Kaleb. Creed had been one of his father's best friends, and as he'd gotten to know Creed considered the vulpine a very close personal friend himself. Creed seemed to understand the way he thought and felt, and seemed to have the same ideals in life...and thought she was often rude to him, Mika was very close to him as well. Being his cousin's best friend, Kaleb had spent a lot of time with Mika and cared a lot about the Minx's feeling, he knew how hard she took the new, because he knew that she cared more for the crimson vulpine than she really cared to let on. After everything was laid out, Fox quickly rushed off looking for Krsytal, who he found in their room with her arms folded across her chest staring sadly out the window...

"Hey..." He said as he approached her resting his paw on her shoulder, "You gonna be alright?"

The vixen wiped her eyes, "Drake told me. He told me that it wasn't who I thought it was...but..." She paused for a moment, "I can't believe Creed would do something like that."

Fox couldn't stand to see the vixen in this state and soon found her wrapped in his arms wiping her eyes on his chest, "It's alright...Drake told me to trust Creed, and I intend to do just that. He had to have a reason for doing what he did, and until we find out what that was I don't wanna hear another word about it alright?" He reassured her petting her long blue hair, "Creed is not a traitor...you'll see soon enough. We'll put this whole thing to an end, and he'll be back with us where he belongs. Then he can explain everything."

Krystal dried her tears again, "Fox...I...I'm afraid, of where this is all going. We have to stop Arlex before he can do whatever it is he's setting out to do. I think we may be dealing with something that runs a lot deeper than his hatred for my people."

"What do you mean?" Fox asked.

Krystal sighed, "It's a long story, but...I think it's one you need to hear. It's about something that happened a long time ago..."


	67. Chapter LXVI

**-Chapter LXVI-**

Fox stood at the window of his room rubbing his temples between his thumb and middle finger, taking a moment to look to the exhausted vixen laying in his bed. She only held the blanket up to herself in a way the still kept one of her perfect breasts visible, despite the sight before him however, the vulpine still felt a heavy weight from what she'd told him about what Drake had told her, she had also told him about the dream she'd had a while back...and how she believed that Arlex was speaking of the Vyserage when he had mentioned the word "god". He knew that if the Vyserage was involved in all of this, Creed couldn't possibly be safe...especially not with the blade with him. As he stood there a light tap on his bedroom door called his attention away from his thoughts. He opened the door, making certain to use his body to block any view of his blue furred lover. Being he was still not wearing a shirt, the bright eyed cheetah that stood at his door, grinned...

"Sooo...what have you been doing?" She asked.

Fox cast the feline an angry look...

"Sorry...geeze it was just a joke." Jane said throwing up her paws in defense, "Anyhow, Lastrad needs you on the bridge. I managed to pry a little travel information out of CHSA archives and pulled up Creed's flight path. He's headed for a small planet called Tjar..."

Fox thought for a moment, "That's in Stygian....unexplored, prefect hiding place. That would explain why we couldn't find Arlex when we wanted to." He said, "Get a course set for Tjar..."

"Fox...there's also something else." The cheetah said, "Um...you received two private messages while you were...sleeping." She said coughing the last word into her fist.

Fox rolled his eyes, she could be incredibly immature, "Who were they from?"

"The first was from Wolf O'Donnell...claimed he would only talk to you." She replied, "And the other was from Katt...she said Falco seemed pretty depressed after you left and she thinks that you should talk to him."

"I understand..." Fox replied, "I'll see to it in a little while." He said causing the cheetah to turn to leave, "Jane...I'm sorry, about Creed. I'm sure he's got a good reason for doing this."

Jane smiled to herself, "I know he dose. Creed would never do something like that...not without a good reason."

Fox was having difficulty believing his own words, however there were a great many other things on his mind at the time, mainly of what was going on with Katt and Falco. The last thing he wanted right now was for the bird to yell at him any more than he already had, but, this was one of his best friend, he deserved as much. Fox found himself a light green shirt that he'd been wearing before walking out of the room leaving Krystal to her own peaceful sleep. As he left the room he was greeted by the same empty halls as every other time he left the room. Behind that door, there was warmth and love, but it all seemed to melt away once he entered the halls, out here it was cold and lonely. The halls of the nemesis remained just as bland and tasteless as the day he'd first seen the ship. It didn't matter however, he thought to himself that by the time this was all over there would be no use for the ship anyhow. Nevertheless, as the thoughts began to fade from his mind, Fox headed off toward the ship's bridge, happy to find no one there when he finally reached the place. He sighed heavily as he slumped down into his seat, and looked around the massive, room, completely devoid of life…

"MIA…" He sighed, "Contact com channel 354-88-5486."

MIA did not reply, rather there was a brief moment of silence followed by the sound of the com system's holo imager humming to life. As the image appeared before him there was nothing there but the voice was unmistakable…

"Yeah whadda ya want?" The familiar voice answered, "I'm a little busy if you're not gonna talk I'm hanging up!"

Fox thought for a moment, he thought about simply hanging up but, instead he only chuckled, "Your manners haven't improved any."

The sound of his voice caused a very audible sigh, "Didn't think you'd call…" Falco's voice scoffed from the other end of the line, "Sorry about not having a visual feed, my com system's seen better days. Listen……I'm sorry, you know about what I said."

"Said?" Fox asked.

Falco laughed a bit, "Yeah. I've been want'n to punch your ass like that for years."

"Why did you go off like that so suddenly?" Fox asked the blank image, "Why not when we ran into each other before?"

"To be honest…I was just glad to see that you were alive then, it took everything I had to keep from hitting you then. You were in bad enough shape already though. Besides that Katt made me promise not to. I really was happy to see you though." Falco said, "But, when all this happened and Katt and Lu got caught up in the middle, and I found you were involved. I dunno…I just couldn't hold it back anymore." He paused and scoffed a bit, "If it makes you feel any better…I broke my wing on your hard ass head. Other than that I just wish there was another way I could apologize."

"You can…" Fox replied.

"How? I'll do anything you want."

Fox sighed, "Take Lucy, Katt, and Slippy's family…and get out of Lylat. I don't know why but, I can feel something horrible is about to happen, and I don't want your family…or Slippy's getting stuck in the middle again. Cuz I really doubt I'll be around to help this time when things turn for the worst."

"Wait a minute what are talking about, not being around?"

"You said "anything" so promise me right now that as soon as you can your family and Slip's won't be in Lylat anymore."

"Alright alright. I swear…we'll be out of Lylat by the end of the week if I have to drag Slippy the whole fuck'n way." The bird replied, "You……just be careful."

"I will…" Fox said with a sigh, "So. How's Katt doing?" He said trying to change the subject.

The bird laughed, "Get'n worse and worse with every week. The doctors said the twins are both fine, so you don't need to worry about any of that. She's always complaining that she can't get up, or walk around, and most of the time he eats things that would even make Slippy think twice about putting it in his mouth."

"And how are you doing?"

Falco chuckled, "Can't really complain. Cept the fact that my wing's busted and I'm trying to repair a fucked up com system that hasn't worked right in over six weeks. Maybe I should send out for someone but, then again that wouldn't really help matters any would it? Now that we're all getting the hell out of here."

Fox sighed as he thought back to Drake's words, "Yeah. I'd be nice to see everyone's face one last time thought."

"You sound like you're dying or something. You'll come out of this on top just like always Fox…you'll see everyone again."

As Fox sat there he was glad that Falco couldn't see his face as a tear rolled down his cheek, "Yeah, of course I will."

**-000-**

In another room aboard the ship, a white Minx looked about, curious about what she might find in Creed's room…she would settle for anything that would clear the large vulpine's name but, as she examined the mess he'd left behind, she found nothing. Until she started to move the mess of clothing that he'd left behind, scattered about the room. As she yanked a loose shirt from the top of his night stand, something flittered to the ground, which she curiously picked up finding it to be a small photograph of Creed and a light cream furred vixen that he'd often talked about, his details were so refined about his sister that she could already tell Lia's face as if she'd known the vixen for years. She took a moment before placing the photo in her pocket, certain that he'd want it back at some point. She didn't like admitting it but, she did like Creed, perhaps it was just her horrible past experiences with men that simply kept her from saying so. She took another look over her shoulder as she began to leave the room…

"Wherever you are…" She said to the missing animal, "I just hope you're okay."

**-000-**

_Creed…_

_Creeeeeed…_

_The world faded into existence slowly, the pain was nearly unbearable, as the large fox examined his surroundings. It was a hospital, a military hospital that looked more than just familiar. And a familiar looking lion stood over him, who's mane had a split just below each of his ears. Creed tried to move his arms but, it was almost as if they weren't even there…_

"_Johnny? What's going on? Where am I?"_

_The lion smiled, "You're in the hospital, ya dumb bastard. Seriously, what the hell were you thinking, flying into a missile like that?"_

_As all the memories flooded back, Creed smiled, "Hey, better me than you right? Least you got a family to go home to."_

"_You know I can't thank you enough for what you did back there." He said holding up a bandaged arm, "Thanks to you I got out of that with a broken arm and leg."_

"_Don't mention it…what else are friends for?" Creed replied as he looked to his left arm._

_The arm itself was nothing more than a bloody stump tightly bound in thick white gauss, while his right was there, but heavily bandaged from the shoulder down. A sad expression wiped over his face as he noticed his missing appendage… _

"_Looks like my flying days are over."_

"_Ahh…who's gonna miss days like these?" Johnny asked, "Sorry I gotta go. But, Sarge only gave me a few hours to stop by."_

_Creed chuckled a bit, "Yeah, he can be a real hard ass sometimes…I'm gonna miss those lectures though."_

_Creed spent hours simply sitting there filtering through everything that he knew had happened, he remembered everything. His unit was ambushed, Johnny couldn't outrun the missile on his tail so, Creed flew his ship into the projectile in an effort to keep his best friend alive. He couldn't recall the crash however, or anything up to this point. Then again as he looked over his missing arm again, and realized that there was no pain at all, he was happy that he'd been unconscious. As he lay there, unable to do anything, a familiar voice came from the door beside him. It was a tall, thin, dark red furred vixen dressed down in field fatigues…_

"_Ensign Tasser…" She nodded to him._

"_Admiral…" He replied, "Forgive me for not saluting…no hands." _

_The vixen chuckled, "I understand…no formalities are necessary here." She said taking a seat in the chair Johnny had been sitting in, "Tasser, I am here to make you an offer…an offer I'm certain you will not pass up. Unfortunately the procedure in question is classified so, I cannot give you the details up front, however, I can tell you that if you go through with our plans, you will not only be fully capable of being a soldier again, but, you'll have your arms back."_

_Creed thought for a moment, "I've only got one question…" He said, "How the hell am I going to sign up for it if my arms are both useless."_

Creed sat up in his small room, the hotel was only supposed to be for one night, but, there was so far no reason for him to leave. He didn't like the idea of just leaving the way he did, taking the blade and all, but there were greater purposes to his own actions. He sighed heavily as he looked to the large weapon laying in the corner of the room, it was much bigger than he'd thought; the blade was thick and wide, which curved fatter as it trailed along the length of the staff, dipping up and in about halfway down forming a second blade that inched it's way the rest of the length of the weapon until only enough of the head of the staff was open for one to grip it. There was something about the strange weapon, it was lighter than anything he'd ever know of, he figured that it was simply some sort of metal that the Cerinians had discovered long ago, but wasn't certain. It was as he sat there studying the weapon that he decided it was time to leave, the weapon had a part to play in everything and he didn't want Fox and the others involved anymore than they already were, he was well aware that this was their fight as much as it was his, but there was no point in all of them dying over something as silly as a sword and a legend. It was only minutes before he was off of the planet and headed for Tjar again, he silently cursed himself for not taking a ship that could have gone a further distance on a single load of fuel cells, but at this point there was nothing else he could do. Soon enough this would all be over.

He still didn't like the idea of leading everyone on the way he had, they were still his friends and deserved better than what he'd given them. No explanation, no good bye, just leaving with the staff like a common thief and traitor…he had even let Sia take the fall at first for him, just to cover his own tacks. He sighed as his small ship shot back into hyperspace continuing it's track toward his destination.

**-The Nemesis-**

**-ETA 3 hours-**

The entire ship had never been as quiet as it had been in the last day, the crew's loss was still heavily felt by the remaining members. Fox still had some fragment of hope, believing that they would find Creed only to find that this was all some sort of horrible mistake, his faith in the whole matter was sketchy however, he's already lost Bill to this fight. He was happy to know that the end seemed to be in sight, but, if it meant fighting Creed he really wished it wasn't. The hours would pass like days, every minute heading toward Tjar seemed like an hour in itself, but still their meeting on the unexplored planet was coming all too fast. The poor vulpine had yet again gotten little precious sleep, not that Krystal's presence didn't help, in fact had it not been for the cerulean furred beauty still laying in his bed he'd have gotten no sleep at all. The mixture of his exhaustion and her presence together were the only things that seemed to get him to sleep. He sighed as he looked out into the vacuum of space beyond his bedroom window, he knew that there was no way of beating Arlex without the blade, and Creed had the blade with him, which meant that it was likely they would have to fight Creed to get it back, it was a possibility that weighed heavily on his mind. As he stood there he closed his eyes as he felt the warm fur of a blue vixen press up against his back, he hadn't even noticed she was awake, he breathed in deep through his nose as she wrapped her arms around his neck resting her head on his shoulder. She knew he was still thinking about Creed as well as the fact that they were nearing the end of this entire thing. Unfortunately, there was something else that weighed his mind down, it was another concern entirely, she knew that it had something to do with himself as well as her, but, she simply couldn't place it. These were the times that she wished for the ability to read his mind the most.

"What's the matter, Fox?" She asked, "I can sense something bothering you, but it isn't Creed."

Fox sighed as he spun about behind her wrapping his arms around her waist, "You know? I love you more than anything, right?" He said changing the subject as he began to rub the side of his muzzle against her neck.

Krystal giggled a bit at the touch of his could nose on her neck, "Of course I do. What's with you all of a sudden?" She asked, "Ever since you saw Drake you haven't been yourself. What did he tell you?"

"Nothing too important." Fox said beginning to gently rub her stomach fur, something he knew the vixen loved very much, "I'm just worried about Creed that's all."

As he kept to his attention to the vixen's bare abdomen, she began to let out a soft purring sound, as she leaned her head back against his shoulder, he always seemed to know how to change the subject on her, because at the moment her thoughts were elsewhere. Fox was always amazed how, even with is thoughts, it was so hard for him to keep his paws off of her at any given moment. Krystal had noticed a change in him over the last day or so, he been far more romantic than his usual self. Their usual love sessions that would occur every so often, had become nightly indulgences of the like she'd never even heard of, sometimes Krystal even wondered if they would ever leave the room again. She had no complains, after all she liked this new development in his attitude toward their relationship, but, despite that something was still troubling him. Unfortunately, her thoughts all faded as she felt Fox's paws move to much more sensitive parts of he body causing her to gasp at his sudden touch. She would keep the other things in mind, but, whatever problem he had, she was certain she could get out of him in the morning…

**-The Surface of Tjar-**

The planet was never a beautiful place; it's atmosphere was always clouded, it's land dry and desolate harboring no life. The ruins to a once great city of stone, lay scattered about the planet's harsh surface, showing the signs that the planet was not always so barren and wasted, the last remnant of a civilization long ago, brought to it's end by unknown means. A lone black furred fox sits on a small pile of rubble that had fallen in the rough semblance of a some sort of unholy throne. Patiently waiting, everything he needed was coming to him, there was no further reason for him to leave, soon Fox's crew would be there…

"Soon enough, we'll draw this to it's end Fox McCloud." He said as he looked to the sky, "And bring about the beginning of something far greater than either of us." He said with a sigh, "Though my purpose has been served, you still have a great role to play yet."

Arlex took a moment to look out over a small group of five animals standing before him; Syler, a light brown furred otter, a bright green scaled iguana, a young snow leopard, and finally a light red feathered avian…

"I brought all of you here, because you were the best." He started, "Soon our guests will arrive. I take it you all know who Fox McCloud is? Kill the others, but let him pass, he is mine and mine alone."

As the small group dispersed, the black fox looked back to the sky, "This day will live on through history…as the beginning of the end."

* * *

**Author Notes: Well this is coming down to that final stretch. Only one or two chapters left, and then I'll see how much I can get done on part 2. If anyone can, I could really use a proof reader, as I find myself with little time to go over ever single chapter with that much detail. Anyhow thanks for the constant support, R&R, and I'll see you all next chapter which should be up in about a week. ^_-**

_The Footsteps in the Darness - SkullFox_**  
**


	68. Chapter LXVII

**Author Notes:** Well...one more chapter and this thing's over. Next one will be nothing but fighting and maybe a little developement for part two at the very end. Anyhow, thanks for the constant support. So......R&R, enjoy, and most of all thanks for seeing this thing through, hopefully part 2 will be just as successful as COF was. I'll see you all next time...

_The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox

* * *

_

**-Chapter LXVII-**

Fox groaned a bit as he opened his eyes, they didn't want to open fully, he didn't want to get up…not when he knew what awaited him on this day. He still lay with the vixen of his dreams, and that was where he wanted to stay, however to his great displeasure he realized that the ship was no longer moving, which meant they had arrived at Tjar. It was as he lay there that the blue angel next to him stirred a bit, rolling over and dropping her arm across Fox's chest using it to pull him closer to her. He could only smile and wrap his arms around her as he lay there. He rest his head on hers, as he sat there with the sleeping vixen in his arms, he began to stroke her long hair lovingly. He wanted nothing more than to stay there with her until the end of time. He couldn't help but to think of all the times they'd spent with each other, both bad and good, yet all days that he'd never have traded for anything. It was as all the memories filtered through his mind that a single tear rolled down his face, trickling onto Krsytal's ear causing her to open her eyes. Fox's eyes were dry once again before she could manage to look up at his face however…

"Morning…" She greeted him with a tired yawn.

Fox smiled at her, "Morning."

The vixen kissed the end of his nose, "We're there aren't we?"

"Yeah…" Fox replied, "We should get ready. It's gonna be a long day."

The entire team met in the ship's kitchen, after making certain that they were all dressed and armed properly for whatever may happen down on the planet. Everyone still looked a bit worried, they all knew the danger of what was coming; they all had their doubts about fighting Arlex, after all if he really couldn't die, how could they hope to stop him at all? Fox and Krsytal were the last of the group to make it to the kitchen, where they found everyone waiting for them. It was as they looked around the room that Fox stopped his gaze on Shera…

"You're staying here." He said, "There's no way I'm taking you down there in your condition. You can stay up here and monitor everything, just make sure the ship doesn't get attacked, if it dose keep a course set for hyperspace and leave us here."

The gray furred lupine didn't bother to argue, she simply nodded.

"Good, everyone get something to eat, then get to the docking bay."

Nobody really said a word after that, none of them really wanted to go through with this, but, it was no longer a matter of wanting to, rather is was a principle of having to. For what they all knew was a greater common good than any of their lives…and that was the lives of every living thing in Lylat. They didn't take their time with breakfast, in fact some of the animals of the crew didn't even bother, a good hot cup of coffee that seemed good enough for Fox and Krystal seemed good enough for all of them. Silver seemed the least hesitant of the group leaving the kitchen still with his cup in his paw Roxy of course in step right at his side, Mika and Jane left at the same time after finishing their drinks, followed by Vixy, then Lastrad and Gwen, then Kaleb and Sia, and finally Shera followed behind slowly to see everyone off, and hopefully to see their safe return. When the gray furred Lupine reached the docking bay, Kaleb and Sia were both boarding an arwing, Sia in the passenger seat of Vixy's craft, Kaleb in his own…

"You had all better come back alive!" Shera demanded.

Fox smiled and chuckled a bit, "Don't worry about it…" He replied as his arwing's cockpit slid shut overhead, "They'll all be fine."

"What was that Fox?" Krystal asked from the seat behind him, she was unaware as to why but, for some reason he had insisted that she fly with him.

"Huh?" He said realizing that she'd heard him, "Nothing…just thinking out loud."

The blue vixen reached over the seat wrapping her arms around him, "You know, you're really starting to worry me." She said nuzzling the side of his head a bit.

Fox turned his head toward her kissing her softly, "I'm fine Krystal…" He assured her, "This whole thing with Creed and Arlex just has me really nervous." He lied, he'd really never been more sure of the outcome of a fight in his life, "So do me a favor, just keep yourself alive and beautiful okay?"

Krystal smirked evilly as she found her way about to sit on Fox's lap, it was difficult but she managed it, straddling his legs so that she could face him, engaging him in a passionate kiss. As she pulled away, Fox was certain that the heat from her kiss alone would have fogged up the windows of the small ship. As she pulled away from him, Fox noticed a sly grin on the vixen's face, one he'd seen a few times before…

Fox scoffed, "You really think we can do that in here?"

"We've made love in an arwing before…" The vixen pointed out.

Fox half laughed this time, "Yeah…but, not while it was moving."

"True…" She replied, "But, there's a first time for everything right?" She asked pulling her shirt over her head, the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra and her bare breasts inches from his face made Fox feel a bit excited, a fact that Krystal could feel very well from her seat, she was always flattered that one look of her body could do such a thing to him, "See you're already excited about this." She teased him scratching his chin.

Fox pulled his arwing out of the docking bay, he'd done so enough times in his life to actually do so blindfolded, and what a blindfold it was as. He found his face pressed into the vixen's cleavage by the paw that held the back of his head, as she affectionately nibbled on the tip of his ears. She wasn't kidding about his excitement, it seemed to escalate with every moment of anticipation. Normally his paws would have been all over her at this point but, at the moment they were the only things keeping the arwing going in the proper direction. The others had long since let the ship and though they were a great deal of distance from the planet itself, everything was lost to the two in the cockpit of the small fighter. Fox experienced new heights of both pleasure and excitement, he wanted so desperately to reach out to her and take her in his arms as her passionate screams of his name were lost beyond the air tight seal of the small, confined space. Normally she wasn't so loud, but, out here there was nobody to hear them, she could be as loud or as quiet as she liked. Fox didn't hold back. The Adrenalin that coursed through his body from the experience made him push the throttle to it's limits, tearing through space at speeds his old arwing could never have even dreamed of reaching. Without warning his arwing tore past the others leaving them far behind as his ship broke atmosphere. It was after Fox's arwing shot by so erratically that Silver opened an emergency channel with Fox's awing, but, as soon as the line went through, both his and Roxy's eardrums were rocked by a loud, almost primal, passionate scream causing Silver to immediately close the link……

Silver looked over his shoulder, "What the hell was that?" He asked only to notice the bright red tinge to Roxy's pink furred face.

She giggled a bit, "That was Krystal."

"Was she hurt?" The silver vulpine asked, "I've never heard anyone scream like that."

This time the bunny laughed a bit, "No…I'm sure she was pretty fuck'n happy."

"Huh?" Silver asked confused.

Roxy took a moment to explain what was going on in Fox's arwing at the moment, this caused Silver's bright fur to practically glow red. Roxy loved it, she'd never actually seen him blush before…

"You can do that in here?" He asked examining the small space.

"You could…" Roxy pointed out, "I'm not about to, if that's what you're hinting at."

Though she said this, the thought of making love at hundreds of miles an hour seemed kind of interesting to her, but she decided to simply wipe such thoughts from her head.

After all the ships had landed on the desolate planet, the others found the Fox and Krystal were still yet to leave the confines of their ship's cockpit. Inside Krystal lay against her lover's chest, having exerted herself into a ball of blue sweat drenched fur. Fox was happy to finally have his arms around her holding her tightly to him, he never wanted to let her go, but he knew that eventually he'd have to, and as Krystal finally pulled away from him she saw a noticeable dark line in his fur streaming from the corners of his eyes…

"Fox what's wrong?" She quickly asked wiping the tears from his face.

Before she could get off another word, Fox pulled her back into his arms, "I love you…"

As Fox held her head against his chest, her telepathy picked up a sort of desperation coming from the vulpine, something was bothering him much more than he wanted to let on. As his emotions drove into her mind and heart she could feel her own tears welling up a spilling over the corners of her eyes…

"Fox…what's going on?" She asked, "You crying like this is going to make me cry. What's wrong with you?"

Fox simply increased his already tight grip on her, "I love you so much. I wish I could tell you the truth, but……I can't." He said sobbing a bit, "I just can't."

Outside the ship Vixy, like Krystal was feeling the emotions teeming from the poof vulpine inside the ship causing her own tears to stream down her face. Mika sighed irritably as she walked toward the ship…

"I don't care what they're doing in there…they're taking too lo––" She was cut off by a white paw pulling on her shoulder.

"No…leave them alone…" Vixy said wiping her tears on her forearm, "They just need some time to themselves for a minute. Silver scout this area and see what you can find…"

Silver nodded before Lastrad looked to Kaleb, "Kaleb, go with him…I don't think Fox would want anyone out by themselves in this place when we have no idea what's out there."

Kaleb simply nodded to the pale furred wolf before heading off with Silver. It took a bit of time but, eventually Krystal and Fox both emerged from the vehicle, and oddly, even Jane made no comments about what was going on, they could all see that now was no time for any kind of jokes, they could all see that the two vulpine had been crying. Fox gathered his weapons from the ship's cargo bay, shortly after Krystal did so, and soon they were standing with the group of animals, all of whom wanted to say something but, could not bring themselves to do so. It was as they waited for their scouts to get back that Vixy found her way to Fox who was sitting off by himself, the only time in recent days that she'd seen him wonder out of Krystal's reach…

"Fox…" She half whispered approaching him from behind.

She found that even now his attention was all on the blue vixen, "Life isn't fair is it?" He asked in a melancholy voice.

"No it isn't…" She sadly replied as she sat next to her son. Oddly there were no words for the longest time before the white furred vixen spoke up, "You know. I've always been able to read your mind, Fox. Your mind is connected to mine on a level that you and Krystal could never reach…because for the longest time, you were a part of me. I know what's troubling you…" She said resting her paw on his head, "It's the only reason you're trembling right now."

"I'm not afraid of what Drake told me……" He replied wiping a stray tear from his face, "I just……don't want to leave her all alone. She tries to act tough, like she can handle it, but, she can't…she needs someone to be there with her, but, most of all I need her."

"I know that Fox." His mother said, "You love her, and it's only natural that you want to protect her."

Fox sighed, "It just wasn't enough time…"

Vixy rested her arm on his shoulders, "It rarely is, Fox. I'm sorry…"

"I'm not…" He replied, "Just a little regretful for pushing her away all those years ago…so much wasted time…"

Vixy beamed brightly at her son, he was ready to die for Krystal at a moment's notice, he'd found the kind of love she'd always hoped he would, even when he was very young, "Fox…you have no idea how proud I am of you, and how proud James must be."

* * *

**-000-**

As Vixy remained there, Fox let out a final sigh before venturing back over to Krystal's side. Not much time lapsed by before Silver and Kaleb rushed back to the open area where the others waited. As they finally got a small bit of rest, the two settled down…

"What'd you two find?" Fox asked.

Kaleb took a moment longer to catch his breath, "Huge ruins…" He said, "A few miles…back that way." He added pointing in the direction him and Silver had just come from.

Silver didn't seem to be even breathing hard, "We also found Creed's ship…the engine was still very hot, I think he may have only just landed."

"Good that means there's time to catch him…" Fox replied, "Lets go."

The trek seemed longer than it really was, the barren landscape looked like hell. There were jagged, rocky, upheavals in the land here and there, the land itself was insipid, lacking all life and purpose. The dry, arid, red tinged sand of the place was blown up into the travelers faces. Fox took the moment to give his shades to Krsytal to protect her eyes from the sand that the wind picked up, while Silver seemed to be walking in front of Roxy completely blocking her from the sand and wind altogether. It was however, as they trudged through the blowing wind and sand that they could all make out a small figure on the horizon, it was the silhouette of a very familiar frame. It had high, blocky shoulders, and was very thick in every aspect of it's build, it took no time for any of the animals to place Creed as the body behind the shadow walking toward the ruined stone structures in the distance, it must have been a very old civilization when it fell. Fox's small crew only seemed to be pushed that much harder after realizing that they saw Creed. It was as they reached the edge of the ruins that they all stopped in place at the sight of a familiar blue male fox standing menacingly before them blocking their paths. Silver stepped calmly through the group and stood before Syler…

"Everyone else keep going." He said, "I won't let him follow."

Roxy stepped behind Silver, "I'm staying here." She said defiantly.

Silver knew there was no way he was going to change her mind, "Alright, but, stay back. Find cover somewhere."

As the others rushed off into the ruined city, that must have at one time been a testament to the people who had built it, Silver looked Syler over. He was still injured from the last time they fought but, nonetheless wore a self-reassuring smile…

"You can't possibly hope to beat me Syler." Silver said, "You're still injured."

"You neglect to realize…that I am not as frail as you take me for." Syler responded, "I was the one that created you boy…and now it's time that I undo that little mistake. My dream will yet come to fruition, even if I have to ride that fool's coat tails to do it, and once I'm done with you. Your little bunny will suffer…she'll beg for death before I'm finished with her."

Silver's face was already contorting into a glare that could stop a Luxonian in it's tracks. As his fists clenched tighter a crimson solution began to seep from his fingers. Roxy could see his entire body tensing up, and his arms shook violently under the tension of his own muscles, it was in that moment she could have sworn she heard one of his fingers breaking under the pressure of his own balled fist. Silver had never been more angry in all his life, it was one thing to threaten his life, or even to try killing him for no clear reason, but, Syler had threatened the only animal that he cared for more than is anything else, without cause, or reason, as if he planned on doing so for the sheer pleasure of hearing her scream. As Syler took note of Silver's reaction to his threat he chuckled a bit…

"You see now what good love is, Silver?" He asked, "It's nothing but a weapon. A weapon your enemy can turn on you at a moment's notice." He said, "You made a dire mistake, sparing my life the last time we met…"

Silver had nothing more to say, Syler had already stepped over a fine line that nobody had crossed with the young silver fox yet. If it meant that Roxy's life was at stake here, then the only obvious outcome to this fight, would be Syler's death. Roxy had already found a place to hide a short ways off behind what was left of an old building, where she was certain she would be safe. As she watched on a silver blur shot toward Syler, causing a large column of stone to explode sending a monstrous tremor through the surrounding area as what was left of the pillar toppled to the ground. Luckily enough for Syler, he had managed to see the attack coming that clearly would have done more than it's fair share of damage, he was however given no time to rest, as Silver shot from the massive cloud of dust that the tumbling pillar had kicked up. The silver beast plowed into the sand casting up another large cloud of sand that hid the two from sight, unfortunately as Roxy watched on a small, familiar form burst from the cloud violently slamming into a once great stone wall causing fissures to course through the structure. Syler slowly walked forward dropping a small vial from his paw, whatever it was caused his entire body to begin to shake violently, whatever he'd just drank was doing something strange. Even after the effects of whatever it was he'd drank had worn off, the blue fox almost nervously twitched his head from one side to the other. Roxy had seen the small vials before, HYPE had become a recent craze on the Xenass Colony before she had left with Fox and Silver, she'd seen it do strange things to people as well. As the strange drug kicked in, Syler leaped forward with a blaze of speed that sent sand into the air, marking a clear path of where he'd been standing. The fact that Silver managed to get out of the way before the wall behind him burst into a shower of stone rubble was no more than a miracle in Roxy's eyes. Unfortunately, Syler took no time in kicking a small chunk of stone at Silver, the projectile moving at bone shattering speed before colliding with it's silver furred target's back. For a minute frame, time seemed to slow to a crawl for the pink furred bystander, as Silver seemed to fold backward slightly spurting a small jet of blood from his maw, before everything seemed to speed up again sending Silver spiraling to the sand skipping several feet before rolling and sliding to a stop. Syler wore a cocky sneer as he approached the fallen vulpine, until he was suddenly stopped, a look of disbelief on his face as Silver, though shaking immensely, began to haul himself to his feet. In that moment however, Syler's look of astonishment shifted to one of anger, and again he shot at Silver…but, as he threw a kick of terrible speed and strength at the young fox, Silver barely managed to duck out of the way and took a firm grip on Syler's leg. With the leg firmly grasped between his paws, Silver ducked under Syler's legs, pulling the appendage with him causing Syler to fall face first into the sand before, in a fashion not much unlike something Creed would have done, whipped the blue fox into the air by his leg bringing him down into a large stone slab with all the force he could muster, practically disintegrating the stone on impact. Knowing however, that Syler was stronger than that, Silver once again hefted the fox into the air by his leg, this time swinging him into the ground causing the red sand to explode from the impact hiding the two from Roxy's view once again. For a third time, Silver swung his "so called" father into the air, but, unfortunately Syler proved to have much more energy than Silver had given him credit for. He found that as Syler's body left the ground, so to did his, as Syler had a strong grasp on Silver's tails somehow, the force and motion of Silver's hoist of the blue fox pulled the appendage tight between his legs. He'd always known that being hit in the groin was painful, but, it was far worse than he'd ever thought, unfortunately that wasn't the half of it, as the force of Syler's flying body flipped Silver through the air, where the poor animal let out a loud yelp feeling the pressure of his own tail crushing his manhood.

As Silver lay there, he struggled to catch his breath but, the pain persisted. Even after Syler shot across the surface of the sand again driving his foot into the poor animal's ribs, sending him yelping in pain once more through one of the large stone walls, which collapsed sending another burst of dust into the air. Roxy was panicked, she could hear Silver suffering, and was certain that the one that was just thrown through the wall was her silver furred lover, there was no telling for her, at her current standpoint she couldn't tell whether Silver was alive or dead, but judging by the amount of damage that he'd taken in such a short amount of time, she doubted that he would stay going for much longer. As the thought of loosing Silver coursed through her mind she pulled the rifle she'd brought with her from the Nemesis. She'd grown up around violence but, the poor Lapin was no fighter, she knew how to handle a weapon, especially a gun. She had always thought that it wouldn't be hard, given the right situation, to end a life. She hated the idea of it, of course she'd done it before, but, there was nothing she could think of to quell the horrible feelings she felt afterward, once the battle high wore off, and she was forced to come to terms with what she'd done. Despite how she felt however, the nervous young rabbit looked out into the battle, where there was again nothing but dust…

Silver grunted in pain as Syler's fist crushed into his gut, causing the poor animal's back to leave a sizable crag in the massive stone wall behind him. Two more punches followed this, causing the wall to collapse backward, kicking up and even larger storm of dust than all the other attack before it. Syler was breathing heavily now, the aftereffect of the HYPE was beginning to hit him, he knew what a second dose of the toxin would do but, it didn't matter to him as he downed another small green vial of the liquid. The mixture of the genetic engineering that made him the monster that Silver had fought last time, combined with the strength heightening effects of the drug, were driving his adrenalin through the roof. The sudden rush that hit Syler caused him to take Silver by the neck whipping him across the area into another wall. He was back on the Silver fox in a heartbeat, the unreal strength behind his paw pressing Silver's neck against the wall, cutting off the poor beaten animal's air. Silver fought with all he had left trying his hardest to break Syler's grip but, as his vision began to blur, he could feel his strength beginning to leave him, his eyes reverted to their normal sheen, and his arms slowly began to fall to his sides…

Roxy propped her weapon up on the small wall in front of her hoping it would steady her aim. Amid the dust and sand that burned at her tear soaked eyes, she could make out only the slightest shadows. Two of which she could tell had to be the two combatants that had ravaged the ruins further than they already had been, unfortunately, even with the scope of her rifle, she could not make out which of the two was her fox. She desperately wiped the tears from her eyes, she knew that if she didn't act quickly that Silver could possibly die. She tried her hardest to determine which one was Silver but, there was no way of telling. All she could hope for was a sudden wind or something to blow away the sand, anything that would give her a clear shot of any kind…

Syler laughed a bit, "You….see now?" He asked spitting out a bit of blood, while squeezing Silver's neck a bit tighter, "You were never thinking about beating me…or you would have. You were thinking about her……" He said, "I tried to keep you away from these kind of feelings…even altered your mind, programmed you so that they'd never be an issue…" Silver whispered something clearly inaudible, "Speak up…"

"I'm…not…a…machine……" Silver managed to say despite the pain or the fact that Syler was crushing his neck, "You…can't…control people…like they are."

"Then tell me what are you?" Syler asked, "You're no normal fox…no normal animal has even half the abilities I've given you…"

Silver swallowed hard against Syler's grip, "Everyone…has things…they can…and can't do." He pointed out, "Just because…I'm different…doesn't mean, I'm…not normal. All people…are normal……in their own eyes."

"And where did you learn, something that stupid?"

Silver smiled through the pain, "Roxy……"

At the sound of his answer, Syler drove his fist into Silver's gut, forcing Silver to involuntarily spit a spot of blood onto Syler's face, as he let out a silent scream of pain while the air rushed from his lungs. There was another moment of blinding pain as Syler's claws dug deep trenches across Silver's chest…

"Well then…" Syler said as a slight wind blew at his fur, "…I guess she'll be joining you and your friends soon enough."

All sound was lost to Silver, and his vision grew darker and darker. He could oddly see things that he'd done throughout the brief period of his life that he was with Fox's small crew. It was as he realized that he was seeing his own life flash before his eyes that he knew he was going to die. Books, movies, and Fox himself had talked about this happening when you were on the verges of death. He didn't know what had happened, he tried his hardest to fight but, his strength just wasn't there. He could feel and see the blur that was Syler draw his fist back, more than ready to end everything…but, in an instant, the blurred mess that was Syler's head jerked to one side, and Silver fell to the ground. The relief of a sudden breath rushed through his body, the air burned his lungs as the desperately sucked up the oxygen that had been robbed from them. He could feel a familiar warmth wrap around him as Roxy threw herself on top of his beaten body. Even though it brought him massive amounts of pain to do so, Silver managed to wrap his arms around her. She'd given him so much; help and friendship when he'd needed it most, she'd just saved his life, and most of all given him her love. It was however as he lay there that everything began to fade again, and soon only darkness filled his sight…

* * *

**-000-**

Fox's group did as they were told, leaving Silver to his fight, they were all more than confident in Silver's abilities, at the moment however, their only thoughts were on Creed who still managed to keep up a slight pace ahead of everyone. It was as they all realized how close they were to stopping him that Krsytal broke into a full sprint, she wanted answers…

"CREED!!!" She shouted causing the large fox to stop in his tracks allowing her to catch up to him.

Creed lowered his head still refusing to turn and face her, "You all shouldn't be here…go home."

"Not until you tell me what's going on!" She demanded, "I thought you were my friend Creed…I thought you cared."

Creed sighed, "I do care…that's why I want you all to leave…before this gets out of hand. I don't wanna watch any of you guys die."

"So you're just gonna rush off and let that freak kill you?"

There was a sad tone to his voice, "My life doesn't matter any more……" Luckily before the other's could arrive Creed looked over his shoulder, "The virus is gonna kill me Krystal. The doctor back on Kew told me himself, it's already become aggressive…I can't have any more than a month or two left."

Krystal was stricken, she knew he had Nepheria, but, she had no idea that it had gone so far, "Then, you should spend that time with the people you care about…not throwing what precious time you have away. Not trying to be some kind of fuck'n martyr." She said, "What about Mika, and Jane? Don't they at least deserve to hear this for themselves?"

**(AN: Nepheria, is a virus that attacks the heart, causing shortness of breath, muscle weakness, severe chest pains, and in all cases…death. The virus was first discovered in Dan'jas after the original Lylat wars, as a pandemic of it was found on Zarr. Millions since have lost their lives to the virus, it has no known cure.)**

"You know I don't wanna do that…" He replied, "I couldn't stand making either of them cry…not over something as unimportant as my life. I've been up day and night thinking about it ever since that doctor told me the truth. I don't think Mika would, but, you know I could never watch Jane cry…I just don't wanna see that look on her face again."

Krystal wiped away her tears at the group caught up with her, "Well…like it or not Creed. We're coming with you, and we can't let you hand over that sword, or we'll all be dead anyhow."

"You saw the way he reacted to it didn't you?" Creed asked holding the sword out a bit, "Arlex doesn't want this thing, he never did…he can't even touch it. The blade was Syler's obsession. I called Arlex, and told him where we'd be to at least buy a little trust, and as soon as I have the opportunity, I'll stick this right up his ass."

"_Well…we're still coming with you."_ Krystal's voice echoed into his head, _"Or would you like to get into this discussion with everyone right now?"_

"_No…don't tell anyone. I'll go…just…"_

"_I understand Creed…just don't be so stupid okay?"_ She said, _"We all love you Creed. We deserve to know these things, so you should tell everyone at some point at least."_

"_Whatever, lets just go…"_

Though they didn't know why, the others could sense that something was wrong, they were all happy that Creed had decided to come with them for now at least. There no obvious signs to whether or not Creed was fully playing along with all of this however, he was withdrawn, not that he'd ever been direct and open before, but, now he simply seemed to ignore everyone. The, the ruins turned out to be much larger than they had first perceived them to be. They spanned out for miles, how grand whatever monumental city of stone must have been in it's golden years, now lost as nothing but a smear of dilapidated constructs, ruined labors of love and advancement given in to whatever fate had befallen such a wonderful place so long ago. The sights however, were the last thing on any of the animal's minds. Their minds were far to distracted with other thoughts about what would await the remaining mass of them when they reached Arlex, unfortunately as they made their way through the labyrinth of destroyed architecture, several animals blocked their paths. A light brown furred otter, a red feathered avian, a younger looking snow leopard, and a green iguana. Creed was one of the first to stop as he looked across the small line of animals, luckily enough they were far enough away for the animals to stay out of earshot…

Krystal looked to Fox, "These guys look familiar to you?"

Fox nodded slowly, "Sure as hell do…" He said looking to the odder, "Maxwell Taloft…number one on the most wanted list in Dan'jas." He said shifting his sight to the leopard, "Yamish Norisar…most wanted in Stygian…" He shifted his sight to the red avian girl, "Sonya Parish…second most wanted animal in the Trinity Accord…" He finally looked to the lizard on the far end, "and…that must be Balthazar Majjir. Most people don't even hear his name anymore, he was the freak that taught Powalski everything he knew…I was sure he was dead, last I heard of him he was stuck on Styx."

"But, how do you manage to get off of Styx?" Mika asked, "There's no technology there…no ships, no nothing, just buildings and convicts."

"When you've been an assassin as long as Majjir, you start preparing for just about anything…" Fox replied, "I'm betting he already had someone waiting to pick him up off that rock whenever he felt the galaxy had forgotten who he was." He said stepping forward, "SO YOU MUST ALL BE HERE TO STOP US!!!"

"No…" Balthazar said stepping to one side, "From what I've heard of you…Fox McCloud, none of us could kill you, that pleasure was saved for the man that paid us. Go right ahead if that's what you want. Just be warned, by the time you finish with Arlex everyone here will be dead."

Creed looked a bit shocked he had made a deal with Arlex that this would only be between the two of them…

"What's the matter big guy?" Sonya teased the large fox, "You didn't think you were any different did you?" She laughed, "The only reason he strung you along is because he knew these morons would follow you."

Krystal rested her paws of Fox's shoulders, "Fox…go on ahead, we'll catch up. You heard them they'll only let you through."

"But…what about you guys?" He asked.

Krystal kissed his forehead, "C'mon Fox. There's nine of us and four of them, how bad can it be?"

Fox took a moment to look to Creed, who, without a word passed the blade in his paws to Fox, "Just go……be careful. I'll look after this bunch…" He said allowing Fox to head off, "AND FOX…." He called making the vulpine halt, "I'm sorry…for running off like that."

"We'll talk about it later…Just make sure these fucks are all dead by the time I get back.."

As Fox made his way by the four guarding the path, Krystal and the others stood their ground. Creed being the first of the group to step forward, Arlex had broken their deal, he knew he should have seen something like that coming but, it didn't make him any less angry. As he stood next to Krsytal he studied the four standing across the way…

"These guys are good…" He said, "They're just waiting for us to make a move."

"Yeah they are…so what's the move?" The cerulean vixen replied.

Creed grinned a bit, "Mister big shot assassin over there is mine."

Krsytal chuckled, "Fine…I'll take the avian…"

Lastrad stepped forward, "I don't like that leopard…leave him to me."

Kaleb stepped out looking to the otter, "Fine, Otter-boy's mine."

Krystal looked over her shoulder, "Everyone else go back and check on Silver…he's been taking way too long. We can handle this. It's not like him to take so long."

Vixy took a moment to look over the four in front of them before looking to Krystal, "Be careful…" She said, "I like you far too much to see you die for something like this. I'd at least like a bit more time to get to know my own daughter-in-law."

Soon enough the only ones left in the area were Arlex's four guards, and Krsytal's small team. Meanwhile, Fox walked slowly into a large open area where a familiar black Fox said on a mass of stone gathered up to resemble a slight seat. It was as Fox approached that the black vulpine stood up…

"It looks like we're all here now." He said brandishing his long curved sword, "He awaits his rebirth…and you'll all be here to witness everything." He said pointing his weapon to Fox, "And then everything will end……"

Fox readied the blade him and his friends had spent so long to reassemble, "Wrong. The only end here……is yours."


	69. Chapter LXVIII

**Author Notes:** Sorry this took so long to put up...I wanted to get it done earlier but, I now work from Midnight to 8am, so it cuts into my writing time, but, don't worry about it. I'll get a Laptop soon and start typing during my breaks at work. On a brighter note, the next chappie will be the Finale, this thing is damn near over with, exactly 70 chapter's if you count the Intro. Well thanks to everyone for sticking this thing out. Remember to R&R, and I'll see you all next chapter, which hopefully won't take too damn long...

With dearest appreciation,

The Footsteps in the Darkness - SkullFox

* * *

**-Chapter LXVIII-**

Arlex boomed with laughter, "You are much more gullible than I gave you credit for McCloud." He laughed, "Do you honestly believe that you made it here without MY wanting it? He has been behind this all from the start, boy. Everything is a reflection of his will. All that you have done and been through up until now, has all been god's will…" The psychotic black fox said.

Fox hefted his sword up in front of his face, "That's where you're wrong Arlex……" He growled lunging at the black furred fox, "THERE IS NO GOD!!"

**(Elsewhere……)**

Creed slowly approached the green skinned iguana who only stared the fox down with a straight face. It was as if the lizard was sizing him up for an unseen attack that the crimson furred vulpine was certain would come without a moment's notice, however, as he approached no attack came. Balthazar simply stood there, Creed gave the animal an uncertain look, there was something off about him. This animal wasn't sizing him up for any attack at all, instead it felt like the lizard was looking right through him. The highly trained assassin was looking for something, most definitely searching for a weakness in the massive fox's demeanor, stance, something. As Creed stood there however, the reptile dressed his face with an evil sneer…

"There it is…" He hissed.

Before Creed could react to the assassin's words, a tremendous pain electrified his senses. He'd not even noticed the animal moving, but, the assassin was on him, one of his thin gangly fingers had been jabbed fairly deep into Creed's side. Creed holed in pain swiping his massive paw at the animal's face, who quickly leaped away, a sharp jolt of pain shot through Creed's body as his side stretched casing him to fall to one knee…

"All that power…" Balthazar said shaking his head, "…all relies on certain muscles and tendons, take one out and there is nothing left." He sneered, "Just a little wound is all it takes. Any time you move those arms, the muscle will tear that much more."

The animal's foot speed seemed unbelievable, his steps produced no sound at all. A powerful strike across Creed's spine caused him to stumble forward with one paw still holding the bleeding wound in his side. The animal was right, he could barely move his right arm without loosing his grip and nearly collapsing to the ground it pain. How could one small hole in his side cause so much pain? His thoughts were briefly interrupted as a foot collided with his face, causing his nose to erupt into a bloody mess as he toppled back splaying out onto the ground. How was it possible, his punches and kicks weren't even that powerful, yet they threw him off balance ever time they struck him. The wound would not allow him to use any strength, Creed had never known that so much of his mobility relied on that muscle. His thoughts were replaced by a steady flow of pure rage, he hated feeling this weak, especially when he knew he was stronger than his opponent. As he thought, Creed's eyes shot wide open before he rolled to one side, allowing the lizard to strike the ground with a surprising amount of force causing a cloud of dust and sand to rise into the air covering his impact. It was odd why would his punches have so much impact when his kicks barely had any power at all?

Creed noticed that as the dust settled, the iguana assassin was pulling his fist from a large block of stone. It was only then that Creed noticed that the assassin's fists were covered by long black, fingerless gloves, but there was something odd about them, and as the green reptile removed his fist from the stone, it made an unmistakable chime…metal. That was his secret, the gloves were padded with some sort of metal, his punches would be like getting ht by brass knuckles. Creed watched on however as the animal leaped toward him again, Creed managed to roll out of the way, but, as he did…his opponent dropped down low swinging his foot into the vulpine's face casing a shot of blood to fly from Creed's forehead. As Creed found his feet he realized something about the bleeding wound on his head. It didn't hurt enough to have been caused by the kick itself, but a second view of the animal's foot showed that there was a small blade peeking from the toe of his boot. Creed shook the blood from his eyes, only to find the animal rushing toward him again…the punch that Balthazar threw however, was met head on by Creed's own fist. The jarring force caused the poor lizard's arm to fold over on itself like an accordion. In reprisal to the punch that had shattered the animal's arm, he threw a kick at Creed's face which was unfortunately caught in the vulpine's horrifyingly powerful grip, which he quickly closed around the reptile's shinbone, crushing the bone caught between Creed's fingers, lobbing the animal a good distance away. Creed was having a bit of difficulty breathing but, managed to stand up…

"Strength isn't all I've got…" He said, still holding his side, "…pain is something that I've lived with my whole life, if you think something like a little stab wound is gonna take me out…you've got another thing coming."

Somehow the assassin managed to crawl to his feet, oddly enough laughing, "You must not be very good at chess…my overgrown friend." He said looking to Creed's shoulder where there was a small metal shaft stuck, "Sometimes a little sacrifice is all that's needed to win. I usually prefer not to use such tactics but…I'm sure you'll notice the effects of the poison soon enough." He said wobbling a bit as he attempted to regain his one footed balance, "I believe you're vision should already be going, soon after that, you'll experience tightness in your chest, be a bit difficult to breath, but, it will not kill you…it'll only paralyze you while kill you myself. Fortunately enough the effects aren't permanent either…my little group could use someone like you, nobody has ever laid a paw on my before…but, you're a difficult animal to read. What do you say? The effects of the poison could wear off in a matter of minutes. The effects are severe but the venom itself is rather weak to the body's natural immunities…"

Creed was most definitely feeling every ounce of the effects of the poison that was coated over the small piece of metal. His vision seemed to make him feel like the world wouldn't hold still, breathing alone made his chest feel as though it was on fire, and he was having trouble moving at all, this all mixed with the blood loss from the wound in his side made for a horrible situation…

"Join you…?" Creed asked in a shaky voice, "Go fuck yourself. You ugly son of a bitch…"

Balthazar chuckled, "Yes. Mother wasn't exactly a saint…but, lets not try to harm each other with words…" He smiled pulling a small blade from behind his back, "Why don't we dry using blades?" He said whipping the knife through the air causing it's point to plow into Creed's leg, the poor animal gritting his teeth in pain as the blade hewed it's way into his thighbone, "I've always loved blades…" The lizard said producing another small knife, "They make things so much funner…with a blaster or gun, you can only point and shoot, but, with blades you are opened to being as creative as you wish. And they can be so much more lethal…" He said lodging this one in Creed's other leg, "Most of all…you always know that you're enemy will feel every small scrap of pain. It really is too bad that we couldn't see eye to eye, on this…"

Creed lowered his head, he knew it was coming, he'd lost…he wanted to protect everyone but, in the end he couldn't even save himself. At least he knew that in his current condition, the reptile would pose no threat to any of the animals that he held so close to his heart. He closed his eyes, not in fear, but so that he would not be forced to see their faces…the very last thing he wanted was to see the other's faces as they watched him die. He'd accepted the fact that he couldn't possibly survive…and waited, but, the sound of death was more closely that of a familiar animal in pain, as a soft, warm body collapsed against him. Even without opening his eyes, he could feel the tears trying to burn through his tightly closed lids. He didn't want to look, he smelled blood, and the sand, but, most importantly now he could smell the scent that came from the fur and body of a familiar animal…

Creed slowly opened his eyes to find Jade collapsed into his arms, a small knife had pierced her back. She struggled to breath, as Creed held her head wiping a bit of blood from the corner of her mouth…

"Hey…" He half whispered shaking her a bit, "HEY!"

The feline's eyes lightly cracked open, "Cr–eed…" She gasped placing her paw on the side of his face, "You're okay…" She forced up a smile, "I'm so happy you're okay."

Creed swept Jane's matted hair out of her face, "Why would you do something like that you idiot?" He asked trying to force back the tears that rolled down his face.

Jane smiled, "I told you……" She said, "I–love you. I don't…care who says it's only some stupid crush……I know how I feel…It's too bad I could never get you to believe me…"

Creed looked away from her, "Shut up……that's not true…"

Balthazar stood there shaking his head, "On second notice…any fool stupid enough to show emotions at a time like this…is better off dead." He said pulling another small knife seemingly from nowhere, "Good bye, Creed. I cannot say that this was a pleasant experience, but if nothing else…I have been thoroughly entertained…"

Suddenly Creed looked straight ahead toward the assassin, his face fixed in a horrible scowl that seemed to be the look of some sort of monster. The three others that bothered to look at his face for even a moment, developed a chill, as if death himself had just placed his hand on their shoulders. The assassin simply smiled, he had never known fear in all the years of his distinguished career…and with a hated sneer the lizard hurled the bladed projectile at not Creed, but, the cheetah that he held dying in his arms. Somehow, however, Creed managed to whip his body around causing the weapon to lodge itself in his back. The iguana's eyes widened…

"It's amazing that your body still has the will to move…" He said, "…the poison seems to have a much weaker effect on you. I will have to check into this as soon as you're dead."

**-000-**

Creed took a moment to remove the knife from Jane's back, "Krystal!!!" He shouted amazingly standing with a knife lodged in each of his thighs, "Kill that bitch fast and help Jane!!!"

"I'll do what I can!" Krystal yelled back rushing toward Jane's side before being cut off by a red feathered avian that rushed out into her path…

"I knew I've seen you before…" The avian said with a grin, "I've waited for the chance to fight you…Kursed."

Krystal snarled at the avian, "Sonya right?" She asked receiving a nod in reply, "We can fight all you want…but, let me take care of the cat first. She's got no part in any of this…"

Sonya stepped to one side and smiled gesturing for Krystal to do with Jane whatever she needed to do, but, as the Cerinian approached Jane's body she threw up her guard stopping a powerful kick before being swept off her feet while another kick sent her flying back a few feet. Krystal shifted her weight just before landing on her feet…

"You know what?" The avian said cracking her knuckles and neck, "It'll be that much more fun if you're fighting for someone you care about. I'd say given where Bal's knife hit, she's got about five minutes…you may as well forget about the big boy. He's good, but, well you'll see, nobody can bleed forever." She smiled, "As much blood as he's lost he must be struggling to stand up…let alone fight."

Krystal looked to Jane before looking to Sonya in a familiar fighting stance, "Stop stalling…" She said, "…I've got four more minutes to kill you before I can heal my friend."

**-000-**

Lastrad stood there gaging whether or not to attack the black spotted, white furred leopard. He was severely concerned about Jane's health, but, he knew that these animals were not to be trifled with, as Creed was already badly injured. As Lastrad stared the young leopard down, he found that he could read just about anything from the young cat's demeanor; he was young, cocky, and hot tempered, but, he wouldn't have been brought here if he weren't a powerful fighter. The first attack was thrown without warning, causing the young feline to be lost in a cloud of dust and sand from the sheer impact of Lastrad's fist as it collided with a large block of stone that was once a great stone building of some kind. The kid was good, he'd only narrowly avoided the attack, and oddly enough, the snowy furred leopard was still wearing the same expressionless grin as before. However, Lastrad threw a kick from his position driving his heel into the feline's defenses, the resulting impact dragging the animal several feet away before roughly stopping against a stone wall. The leopard was amazed, his punch didn't seem that powerful but, even blocking that kick hand nearly broken his arm. The cat's look was that of confusion as he attempted to discover the pale furred Lupine's secret…

Lastrad smiled before lifting the right leg of his pants; his entire right leg was nothing but metal…

"What's the matter kid?" He asked, "Never heard of a Neural Link before?"

Now Yamish understood why the kick was so powerful but, that didn't explain why he was able to throw the kick so fast. Neural Links were strong but, were often sluggish in their response time…

"I know what you're thinking kid." Lastrad said, "I guess telling you wouldn't hurt before this ends. My Links are special Prototypes, faster than average response time. I think after this is all over I'll let Creed in on this. I'd really like to see him throw a punch any faster than he already can. My only question is…" Lastrad smiled, "Can you guess which one of my arms was replaced too? Before it kills you."

Lastrad charged, driving his right toward the young leopard, which collided with the wall behind him, shattering it into a mass of rubble and dust. _That was it_… Yamish thought, _It has to be his right._

The flurry of attacks that leaped at the leopard's face were set with speed and power. Lastrad was more than just a gifted fighter, he didn't know why he didn't like this kid, he simply knew that he didn't. The leopard however, seemed to not block but, had the speed to dodge every attack that was thrown at him. The sheer speed and power of the wind from each strike kicked up a large amount of dust until Gwen could hear no more sound. She knew what had happened, she'd never seen Lastrad loose a fight in his life, and thought she doubted his ability against Fox himself…she knew Lastrad could beat this cat without much of a threat…

As the dust cleared however, she was given sight of Yamish, his claws buried deep into Lastrad's chest. The white wolf however, used his right leg to quickly destroy the cat's left knee, causing hm to wail out in pain as he fell to his knees, pulling his claws from Lastrad's chest. The white wolf used the foot of his metal leg to pin the feline to the ground…

"It…was…your right arm." Yamish said.

Lastrad smiled, "Wrong." He chimed, "I've never lost an arm. The fact that you were keeping track of it, trying to find out which arm could kill you, distracted you from the thought of my leg. Nice try thought kid. Any last words?"

Yamish smiled, "At least…I won't be here."

The cat reached up taking a hold of each side of his head and twisting sharply, the resulting sickening crunch of his vertebra separating caused Gwen to look away. Lastrad sighed as he shook his head, the kid preferred to kill himself than to loose. Lastrad however had his friends to worry about, each of who was now in a fight for their own lives as well as the life of the cheetah who still lay there bleeding in the sand…

**-000-**

Krystal tore over the sand toward the red avian girl, her mind was focused. The Cerinian had known Jane for years, she felt responsible for the young feline, almost like a little sister of some kind. Seeing her laying there, with this bird in her way simply pushed her over the edge. If Sonya wanted to fight Kursed, it was Kursed that she'd get. Sonya sidestepped a short kick the vixen threw, only to find Krystal's body soaring back over her. Upon her decent, the blue vixen drove both her feet into the avian's spine sending her to the dirt, where she was dragged through the dirt. The attack had completely caught her off guard. After a moment, Sonya looked to Krystal who stepped to one side, seemingly vanishing into thin air…

"You wanted Kursed…" Her voice echoed into the animal's skull, "You got her. Do you think you can actually find me Sonya? When your mind itself doesn't even believe that I'm standing right in front of you?"

The avian instantly lurched out striking the air in front of her, unfortunately her food met with nothing. Suddenly another shot hit her in her right side causing blood to spurt from her beak, the vixen was more than powerful, and what was worse she was somehow completely invisible. Krystal stalked around the avian for a moment, their minds completely linked, and the Cerinian could only smile at the thought that plowed into her mind, _This isn't fair…_

"You didn't ask for fairness…you asked for Kursed." She smiled, "Fair isn't a word she plays by." Krystal smirked pushing the avian from behind causing her to stumble forward, "Our minds are linked right now Sonya…there's no running, no hiding, no fighting back, this is why Kursed was as good as she was…and you're about to learn just how much of a bitch she can be."

Keeping herself cloaked from the bird's mind was one of the easiest things Krystal knew how to do. Bird's sense of smell and hearing weren't nearly as good as those of a fox or wolf, that most likely would have found her anyhow. She could at this point make the avian see, hear, or do anything she wanted. This was truly what had made Kursed so lethal in a fight, she could do almost anything to you from inside your mind, once she was in there it was her plaything.

The avian quickly buckled over as an unseen foot struck her in the gut, the internal damage causing her to spit up a large spot of blood. The attack however, wasn't complete yet. Sonya was quickly forced to look at the sky as her legs were taken out from under here with a very powerful leg sweep. She was given little time however, as Krystal drove her knee into the bird's spine at the same time crushing her elbow down into her gut, trying to force her elbow and knee to meet. As she allowed the poor animal to fall back to the ground, Krystal sighed. She'd hoped that when she'd forgiven Fox, and gone back with him, that she'd seen the last of Kursed…but, this animal had forced her to wake the vixen up again, and what was worse of all, Jane was still dying…

Sonya slowly tried to push herself off the floor, but her arms gave causing her to fall beak first back into the sand…

"I–understand now……" She huffed struggling to breath through what she was certain was a collapsed lung, "…you'll……always be…the best. This is your place in life…you're just a killer like me."

Krystal slowly faded back into existence to the red avian, "No. I'm no killer…I gave up Kursed. She was the killer not me. There's too much more in this universe…too many wonderful things and feelings. It's just not worth it being pissed off all the time."

Sonya thought for a moment, "Kill because you have to……not because you want to, huh?" She said coughing up a bit of blood, "I–I'm…not a threat anymore…my back's broken……I can't hardly breath. If you really aren't Kursed…then do me a favor, and make……the pain stop." She said, "I…I'm sorry for…keeping you away from your friend."

Krystal knelt down at the animal's side, she wasn't kidding she was pretty much completely paralyzed. Krystal thought for a moment before placing her paw on the animal's head. There was a moment in which she simply thought of letting her suffer for what she'd done…but, that was Kursed talking, Krsytal could never do that to anyone. Krystal closed her eyes and the avian's eyes went wide as she gasped for one last breath of air, before her head limply fell to one side. As Krystal thought about it she shook her head and made her way over to Jane, where she slowly began to look over the feline's wounds, hopefully they weren't so bad that her healing would have no effect, but at the very least she had to try...

* * *


	70. Chapter LXIX

**Author Notes:** Anyone interested with helping me on part two send me a PM and I'll try my hardest to get back to you asap...I could use all the help I can get, as I have quite a few fics to work with here. Thanks everyone, R&R and enjoy the conclusion of Chains of Fate. Hopefully Shattered Hopes will be just as successful as the original...till then C'ya all...

* * *

**-Chapter LXIX-**

**~Finale~**

There was nothing left to Creed's senses, he didn't want to hear or see anything around him, the only thing on his mind was the blood of the one that had just harmed Jane. Balthazar could hardly believe his eyes, this animal should have been completely paralyzed, but, he was moving just fine, slowly inching his way menacingly toward the green skinned assassin. He quickly shot another blade in the vulpine's direction that halted as it drove it's blade into the crimson furred vulpine's shoulder, to the iguana's dismay however, the impact did not even cause the fox to flinch, or his stride to falter…rather it merely added to the anger that had already welled up inside the animal's being. Another knife followed this one driving it's way into Creed's abdomen, yet, instead of pain, the only sound that erupted from the vulpine was a howl of anger as his slow steps broke into a pounding charge. Balthazar was cornered, there was nothing he could do, his leg was useless…he could only stand by as the world seemed to slow to a crawl and accept the fact that his life was over. The force of Creed's punch was something that not even he had ever seen, the impact alone causing the animal's head to cave and fragment spewing a grotesque shower of debris into the air, as the headless body of the old assassin tumbled across the ground sliding to a halt. Creed slowly regained what composure he could as he turned to face the blue vixen at Jane's side, the world blurred in and out before his large body caused a burst of dust to spout up around him as he fell to his back.

**-000-**

Kaleb tried his hardest to force his right eye open, but, there was no go, it wouldn't be for some time before he learned that the otter's attack had completely destroyed it. Kaleb had done just fine before discovering that the animal had a knife, which he held in a familiar reversed manner. This otter, Maxwell had Black Ops training. Fox himself had taken the same training, as had his father long ago, Kaleb had heard stories about how tough the training for the Viper unit was, but had never even thought about signing in for it. How did he even have a prayer fighting someone like this? The animal's attacks felt as though they could shatter solid steel, and his speed was beyond the grasp of normal animals, where had this guy acquired his skills?

As the young lion studied his opponent, the otter shot across the small distance swiping his knife at Kaleb's leg, which was quickly hoisted out of the way, unfortunately, as Kaleb did this a foot was driven into his unguarded ribs sending him to the ground several feet away. He was given no time to recover either as Maxwell shot across the ground again, this time dropping and sliding into Kaleb's chest with both feet, sending him spiraling through the air. Before the poor feline's body was given a chance to land however, another shot sent him back first into the ground causing a large spot of blood to burst from his mouth.

He had nothing left, he didn't even stand a chance. Kaleb had always relied so heavily on his strength, he had always sworn to protect his cousin Gwen, he wanted so badly to be as strong as the other; Lastrad, Creed, Fox, even Krystal and Mika…they were all stronger. He couldn't help but to think that If he were stronger, just a little stronger…maybe things could have been different. He could see the otter as he came to stand over him; his taught body showed through the open front of his vest, several small scars showed that he'd been through his fair share of bad situations, there were several tears in his camo jeans that were put there during his short fight with Kaleb. He took a moment stretching his neck before reaching down to Kaleb, but a sudden jolt of pain caused Maxwell to spin round looking toward the horizon. Just about a hundred yards off a small line of animals stood. He reached for the pain in his right ear…but, the entire ear itself was gone, and one of the animals in the distance held his paw into the air as if to summon back the small, round blade that flew back to his grip as through it was the object's proper place in the world. Kaleb slowly raised his head off the ground only to notice the animals on, where dark clouds could be seen rolling in to cover the sun. He knew the figures…

"Hey!" Jared's voice shouted, "Leave that kid alone!"

Jared had finally made it back to the Nemesis with Wolf and Kala, who were now accompanied by Shera, Vixy, and Mika, having sent Silver and Roxy back to the ship with Sia, after finding them near Syler's lifeless body. As they stood there Jared stepped forward before Wolf placed a paw on his chest…

"Stay back…" The old gray furred lupine said, "…this one's mine."

Jared took a look over to Wolf who gave him a half smile and a cocky wink, then looked back to the otter standing over Kaleb, "Too bad for you, pal."

"You all go get the kid as soon as this starts…" Wolf said reaching behind his back, "This guy's good, so stay back…"

Wolf dashed forward meeting the otter head on, Maxwell's blade however met with an unmistakable force, another blade. It was as this happened that Maxwell noticed the blade in Wolf's paw. There was a small etching on the black blade, the white outlined head of a viper, the exact same knife as the one he was using, the very same as the one Fox carried…

Wolf chuckled a bit, "Viper, huh?" He asked, "Let's see how good the new generation of kills are…"

Kaleb could hardly believe the speed and precision of the two animals as they clashed, the blades were much smaller than that of a sword, yet, ever strike seemed to be met with the exact same metal on metal impact. Wolf was amazed at the youngster's speed and poise. The otter had not given an inch, he'd expected nothing less from the unit that had trained James and himself. He would have compared the kid's ability with Fox's had he not known that Fox could have taken the kid down without breaking a sweat…but, from what he'd heard so far, Fox had greater problems on his paws.

As the two members of Viper clashed Wolf took an opening spinning under the otter's blade before swiping his razor like claws across the kid's back, causing the otter to roll forward and spin about to face Wolf once again. Maxwell tore the vest from his body throwing the torn, bloodied thing to the ground along with his small knife. From behind him now he pulled a much larger bowie knife with each paw. Wolf only grinned whey did they all think size mattered so much? The otter lunched at Wolf, who replied in step rushing in but, dropping into a forward roll just as the large weapons swiped over his head, making sever passes with his weapon over Maxwell's side, before sanding up on the other side, now holding the otter's discarded combat knife in his other paw. Maxwell looked to a slash in his left thigh before looking to Wolf who held both knifes out in a strange offensive stance…

"Never drop your knife kid…" Wolf growled, "Viper rule number one. Just cuz those are bigger don't mean shit."

This time Maxwell charged in and swiped at Wolf's head causing him to duck again, however, this time the otter completed the rotation spinning again before swiping one of the large blades across the wolf's large chest. Wolf of course retaliated with a small spinning motion before rolling to one side causing the kid to fall to one knee. The back of his knee had been slit, there was no winning against a fellow Viper, not when he was half lame. The otter instead looked to Wolf, then to the crowd of onlookers. He smiled at Wolf before lifting his right paw and hurling the knife held in it at the crowd. Wolf lurched out at the otter ducking under a swipe from his remaining blade, and with a spinning motion, drove one of his blades up into the kid's chin before reversing his spin and plowing the other into his skull. Maxwell never made a sound, his neck slightly twitched from the dying nerves before he finally fell limply to the ground, however, he'd been too late to stop the other knife and heard something burst from the crowd, the voice of a white Minx…

"KALEB!!!"

The entire group seemed to gather around the poor feline, the knife that Maxwell had thrown was headed for Mika, before she was knocked to the ground by the young lion. He knife's blade was far too wide, the amount of blood he was loosing was unrepairable, and everyone standing there knew it. Mika held the heavily bleeding cat as she knelt beside him, he'd saved her life by sacrificing his…

"Hey…you're okay." He whispered softly, spitting up a large spot of blood.

"Shut up…don't talk, Krystal can fix this." Mika said as the tears rolled from her eyes.

Kaleb weakly shook his head, "Ev-even I…I know better……than that…" He said, "I……I tried. Tried my hardest, but…he, was just…too strong." The young cat said looking to her face, "Tell…my dad….that I'm sorry. Sorry that……I couldn't be––more––more like him."

Mika tried to shake away her tears, "Why would you do this?"

"Hey…" He mumbled weakly as his eyes began to fall shut, "…what's…what's…family……for………"

**-000-**

Their swords' collisions were masked by the sound of the approaching thunderstorm, as the rains began to run through their fur. Fox wiped a bit of blood from an open wound on his cheek, as Arlex wiped a bit of blood from his forehead. Fox was not used to such a large weapon as the blade he held, but, he was driven. This animal had caused the suffering of every animal he held dear to him; and worst of all, he threatened the most important thing in the vulpine's young life. Their thunderous clashes were pet with sprays of sparks as lightning began to flash overhead, highlighting the two vulpine as they tried desperately to overtake one another. After a particularly powerful collision Fox knelt low under a high swipe of the black fox's blade, swiping his own at Arlex's spine, only to have the black vulpine's arms arch back striking his blade again. The entire time the battle was waging on, Drake's words echoed through the vulpine's skull. Making it difficult to concentrate. It was as the two clashed that something awoke deep within the half Cerinian, and as their weapons clashed again, Fox thrust his paw toward the black fox's chest, a burst of blue energy sending him hurling off into the distance where oddly enough the animal landed on his feet sliding several feet before driving his blade into the ground in an attempt to keep himself from sliding away any further.

Arlex smiled as he looked to Fox, there standing in the darkness of the passing thunderstorm, the vulpine stood, a bright blue aura enveloping him entirely. It's waved off his body in small arches like small arms of blue fire, his entire being resonating with the power of his once hidden Cerinian heritage. It was as he studied this sight that Arlex realized that, unlike before, Fox was completely under control of this power. His eyes were intensely focused and their jade green irises, seemed to resonate with a powerful glow. The two charged each other again, this time their weapons meeting with more speed and more force than before, several strikes resounded with the same bursting chime of colliding swords, before a spinning kick from Fox struck Arlex in the chest, resulting in another flash of blue light as the vulpine slid away on his back. Arlex kicked back onto his feet, and rushed again…he knew his fate, it was far beyond the comprehension of these animals or their common ilk, his life as well as theirs were all insignificant.

The clashes of steel met each other with thunderous busts of sound, neither of the two giving ground to the other, their resolve seeming to dig into some sort of ethereal spring within their very souls. Fox and Arlex collided again, and in the distance a single onlooker made her way over a small hill, falling and stumbling down the side of the uplifted ground until Krystal found herself face down in the red mud the torrential down pour had created on the ground. After healing Jane she barely had any energy left at all, her arms and legs begged her to stop but, she was determined to see Fox out of this alive, as she dragged herself from the ground forcing herself to stand up. She could hardly believe her eyes as she looked on at Fox, his entire body seeming to emanate an intense blue light the likes of which she'd never seen before. Whatever powers Fox had, whatever gifts of the Cerinian blood in his veins held…he'd found some way of awakening them.

Krystal found herself watching in hope and horror as the two massive powers collided, their very presences seeming to personify the forces of light and darkness as their weapons seemed destined to meet one another each and every time. The rolling thunder was no more than the heavens screaming in protest to the forces at work here…Arlex had to be stopped for the good of far more than just one small crew of animal that lived aboard the Nemesis. This fight went far beyond the importance of any one life, it was for the lives of every living thing; were the Vyserage to be allowed to be released in any way, there would be no stopping it, the dark being, whatever it really was. Would wash over the universe, slowly eradicating all life and all existence it came across. The two combatants continued to clash, the power of each strike causing water and mud to shoot up around their bodies. One of them had to give sooner or later, and she hoped and prayed that it was not Fox that would do so.

The collisions seemed to grow stronger and more threatening with every passing second, Krystal had lost count of their weapons' meetings long ago. Their fighting seemed to carry on for what seemed like forever until, the two moved in on one another. This time as their weapons clashed, a shower of sparks showed that the swords were striking one another over and over again with more and more force, much more than Krystal could have possibly thought of. The rapid succession of the meeting steel was like something out of a dream, as the rain seemed to fall harder, the storm seeming to reach it's climax as the two fighters heard their own. The ice cold rain stung Krystal's eyes to the point where she kept them only barely open, but, she hadn't even noticed that the short bursts of light from the sparking weapons had stopped. There was nothing but darkness now, until a single ray of light broke through the clouds for a brief moment, giving her the views she'd hoped for. Fox's blood drenched weapons impaling Arlex. She could only smile as she watched Fox begin to free the Cerinian weapon only to have Arlex stop it, with a single paw while reaching to his chest, screaming in pain before hoisting a familiar shard into the air, and sharply driving it into Fox's chest, driving a scream of seer agony to erupt from Fox's throat as Arlex lightly twisted the object…

"Welcome…to my world……McCloud…." Arlex mumbled with his last breaths as his body fell to the mud taking the weapon with him as Fox's paw refused to hold on, and he too fell to the mud.

Krystal's scream for the vulpine was only masked by a sudden roll of thunder, as she rushed to his side, stumbling and slipping in the mud as her body still refused to fully work the way she told it to. When she finally found her way to his side, she found that Fox was smiling as he reached out to her…

"I wanted to tell you…so badly…" He said weakly, "But…If I––I would have told you…" He stopped to take a few labored breaths, "This would be you……instead of me."

"I understand…but, you'll be okay." The blue vixen said wiping away her tears, "I…I'm sure, I can…I can do something."

Fox shook his head, "No Krystal…stop trying so hard." He said resting his paw on her cheek, "Just…stay alive…for me." He said pulling her to him. He just wanted to hold her, one last time, "I'm sorry…" He said as he wrapped his arms around her, "…I love you."

It was as is she felt his arm fall from her back that she realized that he was gone. The others that were rushing toward the scenes stopped in their tracks, the heartbroken cry that sounded from over the hill was enough to tell them all what had happened. The scream of Fox's name tore at their hearts, bringing tears to the eyes of every animal there; even Wolf couldn't hold back. They were certain that Fox McCloud was dead. As for Krystal, the vixen threw herself onto the vulpine's body, punching at his chest, yelling and cursing at him. He'd promised her he'd never leave her again, and now she was just as alone as the last time. He struck him until her arms completely gave in causing her to fall back onto his chest, where she closed her eyes. Mentally taking herself back to a time when the lay in the exact same position after making love to him, listening to his heartbeat as it slowly lulled her to sleep.

The rhythm of his heart was so soothing then, it made everything go away, and made all her thoughts seem to melt away. She lay there thinking to herself what it would be like now, sleeping without ever hearing that sweet sound again. Suddenly something caused her eyes to open and her ear to twitch. It was very feint, almost none-existent, a light bass sounded from the depths of her lover's chest…a welcome, familiar sound that was slowly followed by another. As Krystal realized that his heart was beating again she lifted herself off of him, still crying but, ready to get him the help he needed…

"GUYS HE'S ALIVE!!!" She screamed over the hill causing a practical stampede of rushing bodies to flood over the hill, "Come on. Wolf help me carry him…someone get the sword from Arlex."

* * *

**-Epilogue-**

Days passed, and still, Fox McCloud refused to wake. Whatever damage he'd suffered, the coma was not willing to lift. Krystal found that the entire crew was welcomed back to Corneria as heroes…the search for Omni personnel still continued. Over 400 or the original 500 that had infiltrated the Cornerian alliance had already been brought to justice, several had been killed, and most awaited nothing less than being sent to Styx where they would surely die…

Kaleb was given the honors of a ceremonial burial as a Lieutenant of the Cornerian military in honor of the actions that had cost him his life, making him the first member of his family line to be buried in the newly formed Notting Hill Memorial Cemetery, where he would be laid to rest with all the brave animals that had recently given their lives in the fight against Omni, as well as along side General Peppy Hare.

Creed had accepted the fact that the virus in his system was eventually going to end his life, but, also decided that the best way to spend what time he had left was at Jane's side, who was recovering soundly, especially now with the large vulpine visiting her room daily.

Wolf was given a permanent pardon by the Cornerian military, completely disregarding his affiliation with the Venomian empire in the past, and was given a job at the flight academy whenever Corneria City fully recovered from the massive fight between itself and it's sister planet Katina.

Jared and Shera were now free to plan for their future, thought it was still far too soon to do anything, as Fox's entire crew was dedicated to rebuilding the city.

The remainder of Lastrad's crew, thought heavy hearted from the loss of their youngest member, decided to head home, accept of course for the white Minx, Mika, who refused to leave her new friends sides, and bid farewell to Lastrad and Gwen, for at least the time being.

Bill Gray was captured and incarcerated for his affiliations with Omni, but, because of his assistance with several arrests of other Omni personnel members, was spared the sentence of being abandoned on Styx, and now awaits a fair trial to determine his fate. His wife Ayme still remains in critical condition…

Falco and Katt Lombardi, became the proud parents of a healthy pair of twins…the two are currently arguing over what to call them…

Silver and Roxy's relationship remains as strong as ever…

But…unfortunately, there is still a blue furred vixen whom sits at Fox's bedside, praying for the day he'll wake up and welcome her back into his arms…

"Krystal…" A familiar white vixen calls from behind her, "You know that this is nowhere near over."

Krystal ran her paw over the black shard protruding slight from Fox's chest, "I know…The news said they found more Omni ships coming in from Dan'jas and Stygian."

"You're the captain now…" Vixy said, "What is it you want us to do?"

Krystal sighed, "Nothing yet. Let everyone rest a bit longer. It's not going to be easy doing this without Fox. This war isn't over…It's just starting…"

…**To Be Continued

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**Special Thanks to......**

BigDragun987

Colyo

Crafty Lefty

crazyefra

Darkness Sapphire Shards

djcoldkill

Evilhumour Author

Fell The Tempest

GUNMAN666

HORN72000

Indestructable Furry Fan

Kitetheblade

LilGstryker

madcow19

Mc l0vin0

Metallic Soul

ninjafoxshadow

oldskoolninja

ShadowFox0324

shadowmccloud

Shifter Black

Sild

StarFoxManiac

Str8shot

Sugar Baby Chibiusa

The Lammynator

theXbeat08

Valentine McDaniel

venom828

WhisperingZephyr

**...and many others for following all the way through. I hope to have Part 2 up sometime soon. Thanks for the constant support, and inspiration, you guys are the best. Peace out...**

Randy "SkullFox" Healon


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